Fact Check: This video doesn't show Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi criticizing the crypto ban in India
The viral video is old and unrelated to the crypto ban.
By Sunanda Naik Published on 15 Jan 2024 4:01 AM GMT
Hyderabad: On January 12, 2023, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) blocked access to the websites of major foreign cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Kucoin, and OKX. Following this action, a video of Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shiv Sena's Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, is being widely circulated on social media, with claims that she is criticizing the recent crypto ban in India.
The video was shared with the caption, āPriyanka Choudhary on Crypto Exchanges & URL Baną„¤ Last hope par koi toh hum sub ke hakh mai ą¤ą¤”ą¤¼ą¤¾ ą¤¹ą„ą¤,#cryptoban #indiaā which loosely translates to āPriyanka Choudhary on Crypto Exchanges & URL Ban | At least someone is standing with us, our last hopeā.
What did Priyanka Chaturvedi say in the video?
"So, to say again and again, that this is a very bad thing, a very wrong thing is happening. Just because we are not able to understand, it must be bad. This reminds me of what children are told right from childhood, especially in India. If you become an engineer, a doctor or a chartered accountant, those are the careers, all other careers are wrong. And if someone wants to do something else, then efforts are made to stop them. If they do not stop, they are thrown out of the house. The same situation is happening with crypto today. Because we are not able to understand what it is, its employment, what is ecosystem, what is Web 3.0, till then we will not bring out any regulation for it and will also tax it. I would like to say one more important thing here. I gave you the example of computers, this is how the Internet came in the country and the world. Every technology will disrupt you and will also disrupt the policies. It is our responsibility to make it a regulatory frame for the technology. Today, when the Internet came, our countrymen benefited the most. The sad thing is that we could not create an enabling ecosystem for them, so they go to other countries..."
Why did India ban 9 crypto platforms?
The ban came after the platforms showcased incompliance and were found illegally operating with Indiaās anti-money laundering law. Earlier, on December 28th, 2023, the Financial Intelligence Unit sent a show cause notice to all nine offshore cryptocurrency exchanges. All 9 crypto platforms namely Binance, Kucoin, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, Houbi, Kraken, gate.io and Bitfinex faced a ban on January 12th, 2024.
Fact Check
NewsMeter found the claim to be false as the viral video is from 2022 and not related to the recent crypto platform ban in India.
We spotted the watermark of Sansad TV at the bottom left of the video. Taking this as a cue, we performed a keyword search and found an extended version of the viral video on the YouTube channel of Sansad TV dated March 29, 2022.
According to the channel's description, the video showed Chaturvedi discussing the Appropriation Bill, 2022, and the Finance Bill, 2022, at the Rajya Sabha budget session 2022. It was the 256th session of the Rajya Sabha. The viral clip can be seen at the timestamp of 8:13 minutes of the Sansad TV video.
The clips was also uploaded to the YouTube channel of The Quint on April 5, 2022.
Business Today report from the time also talks about Chaturvedi's speech during the parliamentary proceeding on the union. The viral video is old and unrelated to the crypto ban. Finance Bill 2022, where she asked the government to rethink the recently introduced crypto tax regime.
According to the report, Chaturvedi alleged that the government has not provided any clarity on the legal status of cryptocurrencies in India but introduced a flat 30% tax and TDS on cryptocurrencies.
The Financial Express and MediaNama also reported this speech of Chaturvedi.
We also ran a keyword search to check for any recent statements by Priyanka Chaturvedi but could not yield any results for the same. Hence, it is evident that the viral clip is old and unrelated to the recent ban on crypto platforms in India.
