A set of two images purported to show a man urinating on a wall with a mural of US president Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite a prohibitory message written on it, are morphed.
The images are viral ahead of Trump's visit to Ahmedabad on February 24, 2020. The city reportedly is being given a face-lift in the wake of the presidential visit.
One of the two edited images show a man relieving himself right next to caricatures of the two leaders. The other image shows work in progress on the art work and morphed messages which prohibit spitting and urinating on the premises.
In fact, a part of a contact number of what appears to be a sexologist has been edited and included in the second photo as well.
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BOOM found that both the images are doctored and neither do they have messages prohibiting urination in the area nor a man can be seen relieving himself.
Below is one such tweet that reads, "After people starting peeing on#Modi they're requesting not to pee on the wall but idk why they're calling sex rogis."
After people starting peeing on #Modi they're requesting not to pee on the wall but idk why they're calling sex rogis 😂😂😜 pic.twitter.com/5tlsEdvjch
— Baba ji (Kailasha wale) (@Bandookbazz2) February 19, 2020
Click here to view the archive of the tweet.
One of the two images have also been tweeted by Gaurav Pandhi, Congress' national coordinator of digital communications and social media.
OMG! Is this for real? 😲🙄🤔😂😂 pic.twitter.com/1t6b77LO6Q
— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) February 19, 2020
The image of the man urinating was also shared by multiple other verified Twitter users.
Kailasa is here . And it has a wall with peeing men. pic.twitter.com/PuOQYqlduq
— Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) February 19, 2020
The tweet is archived here.
Can't believe my eyes 😳🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/C3QooxO2mD
— Santosh Addagulla (@santoshspeed) February 19, 2020
A person peeing next to U&I written on newly built wall.
— Aditya Roshan (@roshanindia) February 20, 2020
PM sir would be ready to deploy force to stop people peeing on the wall but will never think why people are peeing there. pic.twitter.com/45lGfvaNlM
The tweet is archived here.
It was shared on Facebook with a derogatory caption which translates to English as, "There is nothing like peeing on this wall." (Original text in Bangla: ''এইরকম দেওয়ালে হিসু করার মজাই আলাদা'')
Screenshot of the facebook post.
Fact Check
BOOM found that both the images have been morphed to include the urinating man and messages prohibiting urination and spitting in the area.
Image 1
BOOM ran a reverse image search and found that the image was first published on Los Angeles Times, in an article headlined, "India hastily builds wall along slum ahead of Trump visit" on 18 February. The photo was taken by international news agency Associated Press photographer Ajit Solanki. The image can be found in AP's stock images as well.
The image is captioned as, "A man rides past a wall painted with portraits of U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of Trump's visit, in Ahmadabad, India, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. Trump is scheduled to visit the city during his Feb. 24-25 India trip. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)"
BOOM also found the screenshot of an urinating man that was misleadingly inserted in the image. The same man can be seen in a video that was uploaded to YouTube in 2012. The video documents the man relieving himself in public in Delhi's Rajouri Garden metro station and the unhygienic premises.
Below is a comparison of both the screenshot and the image.
Left: The original image, Right: The edited image.
Image 2
The other image, with messages prohibiting urinating and spitting in public, was published in an article published by Hindustan Times on February 18.
The article was titled, "Gujarat CM visits Motera stadium to oversee 'Namaste Trump' preparations". The image was clicked by news agency PTI. It has been captioned as, "A man gives finishing touches to paintings of US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a wall as part of a beautification along a route that Trump and Modi will be taking during Trump's upcoming visit, in Ahmedabad."