Did A European Paper Publish A Spiderman Comic Supporting Modi? A FactCheck
The comic equaling Spiderman stopping a train to PM Modi saving India, is an iteration of a popular meme.
The claim surrounding a viral cartoon being circulated on Twitter and WhatsApp, which claims to be from a European newspaper, is false, as BOOM found no evidence of such a newspaper or publication carrying the cartoon. The cartoon is an iteration of a popular Spiderman-centric meme, which implicitly projects Prime Minister Narendra Modi single-handedly saving India from the opposition and from foreign forces. Rather than a European newspaper, the meme was shared by David Vance, associated with AltNewsMedia, a British right-wing website.
The cartoon can be seen below. It shows Spiderman (with the words 'Modi') singularly stopping a train (depicted to be terrorists such as ISIS and Khalistanis; Pakistan and China and Rohingyas and Bangladesh, and the opposition) from hitting a child (here, India).
BOOM received this cartoon on its helpline (7700906111).
BOOM used relevant keywords to find that this was viral on Twitter and Facebook as well.
FactCheck
At first glance, one can note that the spelling of 'Mamta Bannerjee' is incorrect on the cartoon, spelling it as 'Mamta Benerje'. On performing a Google reverse image search, using relevant keywords such as 'Modi', 'BJP' and 'European', BOOM found replies with this the image to publications such as ANI and to Mahesh Vikram Hegde of PostCard News, with the same cartoon on December 20 and December 21.
— Saurabh (@NTTNN9) December 21, 2019
Modi vs Opp #ISupportCAA_NRC
— Nandini Idnani (@idnani_nandini) December 20, 2019
Congress fully supp violence in India
Shame on Congress pic.twitter.com/toTKzxTXyt
On investigating further, BOOM found that the image was also tweeted by the verified handle of David Vance on December 20, who is associated with British right-wing online portal AltNewsMedia. While Vance tweeted this meme which has more than 8,000 retweets and 17,000 likes, his portal is not carrying the image. Vance originally tweeted this image with the caption, "With great power comes great responsibility", a popular quote attributed to Spiderman.
His tweet can be seen below.
With great power comes great responsibility. #StandwithModi pic.twitter.com/HO1ZCF0EPe
— David Vance (@DVATW) December 20, 2019
An archived version of Vance's tweet is available here.
This meme is also being used extensively by users on Twitter under the hashtag #standwithmodi.
The Spiderman meme, where he is stopping a train from hitting a child, is one popularly used on the internet, and it can be generated using free-to-use meme-generators.
Such free generators can be seen below:
Further, there is no evidence that this meme appeared on any British newspaper, as originally claimed.
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