Fact Check: Singer Sonu Nigam did not tweet in support of Unacademy
The X account by the name ‘Sonu Nigam’ does not belong to singer Sonu Nigam. The singer has not been active on X for some time.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 19 Aug 2023 11:54 AM GMT
Screengrab of the X post.
Hyderabad: Media outlets have claimed that singer Sonu Nigam has come in support of ed-tech company Unacademy for firing one of its educators Karan Sangwan.
Sangwan’s contract was terminated after a video of him went viral where he urged his students to ‘vote for educated candidates’, which the company claimed is a breach of its code of conduct.
The viral claim comes after an X post by a verified user named Sonu Nigam is going viral on social media. The post reads, “Thank You @unacademy for terminating Karan Sangwan. He should have focused on putting more effort into the betterment of students instead of ranting. A teacher must remember that his task is to teach and not to preach. Let democracy and the people of India decide their leaders. (sic)”
(Image Credit: @SonuNigamSingh)
Media outlets such as Bharat Times, News18 and NewsX amplified this claim.
A Facebook user also shared the purported screengrab of the singer Sonu Nigam’s post.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the X account by the name ‘Sonu Nigam’ does not belong to singer Sonu Nigam. The singer has not been active on X for some time, and no such post was made on his official Facebook, Instagram account and YouTube channel.
The post was tweeted from the handle ‘@SonuNigamSingh.’ In the bio, the person identified himself as a criminal lawyer from Bihar.
We also found an Instagram account by the same name which showed a different person and not the singer.
What about singer Sonu Nigam’s X (Twitter) account?
On the YouTube channel of Sonu Nigam, we found links to the singer’s verified Facebook and unverified X account. The Facebook account is active with regular postings; however, we found no activities on the X account.
Further, we looked for Nigam’s Twitter account on the Wayback Machine and found a verified account with the same username ‘@sonunigam’. The account was created in 2009, and the last archive of his active account was from May 5, 2017.
(Image Credit: Wayback Machine)
According to a report by Hindustan Times, on May 24, 2017, the singer posted a series of tweets announcing that he would delete his account. We also found an interview of Sonu Nigam with the entertainment YouTube channel Showsha from 2020, in which he said that he does not have a Twitter account.
Hence, we conclude that the singer Sonu Nigam has not made any statement backing Unacademy around ongoing controversy. The claim is false.
