Did Arvind Kejriwal Follow A Pornographic Twitter Account? A FactCheck

Several Twitter users on Wednesday took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claiming his official Twitter account was allegedly following an adult content Twitter account Esmee (@Esmee4Keeps).

However, BOOM found that this Twitter account was previously named 'Children doing shit' and 'Wasted Videos' (@wastedvideos_) which used to post funny videos.

We also found that the Twitter account has changed its name, handle, and bio before it started posting pornography and had recently changed its handle name from @WastedVideos_ to @Esmee4Keeps, post October 7, 2022.

The Twitter account @Esmee4Keeps created in April 2022 currently has 129 k followers and was followed by several prominent accounts including Kejriwal, Podcaster Amit Verma, and Unacademy founder Roman Saini.

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The hashtag #TharkiKejriwal started trending on Twitter with several Twitter users taking a swipe at CM Kejriwal. Later Kejriwal's official Twitter handle unfollowed the Twitter handle in question.

Rishi Bagree also tweeted the same claim with a screengrab video of Kejriwal's profile following the account with the caption when translated reads, "We had come to change politics"

BOOM has previously debunked misinformation tweeted by Bagree.

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Right wing website OpIndia published an article with the headline, "'Aam Aadmi Porn': Netizens mock Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly following an adult content account on Twitter".

The OpIndia article lead read, "As per social media users, Arvind Kejriwal followed a Twitter account named @Esmee4Keeps, the display picture of which shows a woman dressed in skimpy clothes. Social media users shared photos and videos as evidence to back their claim that Kejriwal was indeed following a pornographic content account and shared creative memes to take a dig at the Delhi CM for his online antics."

However, the article does not mention that the Twitter handle previously went by different names and had changed its handle name.

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FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the Twitter account Esmee (@Esmee4Keeps) has been changing user and handle names, and was previously named 'Children doing shit' and Wasted Videos (@WastedVideos_) which primarily posted funny videos before it transformed into an account that tweets pornographic content.

We found that the Twitter account (@Esmee4Keeps) went by the handle name (@WastedVideos_) which used to tweet and retweet funny videos. It previously went by the handle name 'Children doing shit' and 'Wasted Videos'

The google cache of this account can be seen below

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A search on Google with @wastedvideos_ shows the type of videos it use to post earlier on Twitter

Twitter advance search: replies to @WastedVideos_ shows @Esmee4Keeps

We were able to establish this by running an advanced Twitter search which replies to @wastedvideos_ and shows up replies to esmee4keeps, which shows both are the same and the former was its previous handle name.

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Now on viewing the tweet replies to @WastedVideos_, we can see the tweets by this account have been deleted. The last reply to @WastedVideos_ was on October 7, 2022, which shows that the account had changed its handle name just a few days back

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The Twitter Id of the handle @esmee4keeps is 1520004626665414663.

This twitter id - '1520004626665414663' matches the Twitter id of its previous handle name (@WastedVideos_) on cross checking with the old account's cache archive. The matching Twitter id's show that both are the same account.

From "Wasted Videos" to "Children Doing Shit" to Esmee posting pornography

Before the handle name 'Children Doing Shit', the handle name of this Twitter account was 'Wasted Videos' which as can be seen below

'Deepak raj2': Previous Twitter bio of Esmee (@Esmee4Keeps)

Additionally, the earliest archive of a tweet by this account on April 30, 2022, shows its bio name - "Deepak raj2" This shows that the account has been constantly changing its bio and handle names.

BOOM was unable to verify when exactly this account changed its user and handle name to Esmee (@Esemee4Keeps), however, we were able to establish that the account was not a pornographic account and had transformed into one post October 7, 2022.