Just because it’s on the Internet, doesn’t mean its true.
The above statement is something a lot of us learn the hard way, when reverse Google Image search didn’t exist, or you had no way of fact-checking something by using Google search to find if it had verified sources. But, in the age of the Internet and everything so easy to verify, you would think you’d know if something was fake.
Not everyone could perhaps say that with confidence. Indian academic, Madhu Kishwar, recently fell for such fake news on Twitter.
Retweeting a picture of a ‘Kashmiri girl who became blind after she was hit by pellet gun,’ from a parody account which has a disclaimer of ‘All Tweets are for fun 100% fake, imaginary, resemblance to any person dead or alive is purely coincidental,’ in its bio, she asked for fact checking.
‘This looks too filmy to be true. Would like @FactCheckIndia to confirm if this is real victim. What are Zakat Funds used for if not for poor and vulnerable?’ read her tweet.
The picture was of a popular character from Game of Thrones, Arya Stark, who is played by actress Maisie Williams.
Kashmiri girl who became blind after she was hit by pellet gun, her brothers, father & mother were mercilessly killed, her sister was raped by Indian Army now begging on street of Srinagar.Where is Humanity?#KashmirUnderThreat #OperationKashmir#IndiaUsingClusterBombs pic.twitter.com/Pcc94cQ7zC
— Zaidu🇵🇰 (@TheZaiduLeaks) August 3, 2019
This looks too filmy to be true. Would like @FactCheckIndiato confirm if this is real victim. What are Zakat Funds used for if not for poor and vulnerable? https://t.co/5Q8JkqGABl
— MadhuPurnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) August 5, 2019
‘Zakat’ is a form of alms-giving treated in Islam as a religious obligation or tax.
People, however, pointed out the fact that this wasn’t legitimate, and a parody account instead in their replies to her tweets.
It’s a parody account
— Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) August 5, 2019
Madam it’s a parody account
— Puneri Melbournekar🇮🇳 🇦🇺 (@dhanashree0110) August 5, 2019
Ma’am, the girl is @Maisie_Williams & it is a scene from the popular television series @GameOfThrones. Today, you are going to end up in lots of Jokes 😂😂😂😂😂😂
— DCP (@ab041937) August 5, 2019
It’s a parody account… He’s joking
— abc (@ind414) August 5, 2019
It’s a parody account. Using a famous image from an acclaimed tv show @GameOfThrones
— Omkar Dabhadkar (@omkar_dabhadkar) August 5, 2019
The final season of Game of Thrones, which aired in April, smashed all viewership records, and had over drew 17.4 million viewers on its finale episode alone.
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