False: Photo Shows India Illuminated During PM Modi's 9 PM, 9 Minutes Appeal
BOOM found that the viral graphic was earlier shared as a joke predicting it would go viral on April 5, 2020.
A graphic of a world map showing India brightly illuminated while the rest of the world appears to be in darkness is being peddled as an actual photograph taken during Sunday's 9 pm, 9 minutes lights off event that was held as a mark of solidarity in the fight against COVID-19 in India.
The viral graphic is being shared in the backdrop of many Indians lighting up their homes with diyas (oil lamps) and candles on April 5, 2020 in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal.
The illustration is being shared with a Hindi caption which says, "When the world was wavering! Hindustan was shining !! Today's picture is telling this."
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(In Hindi- विश्व जब डगमगा रहा था ! हिंदुस्तान जगमगा रहा था !! आज की तस्वीर यही बयां कर रही है.)
Viral on Twitter
The same graphic is viral on Twitter with the misleading caption
विश्व जब डगमगा रहा था ! हिंदुस्तान जगमगा रहा था !! आज की तस्वीर यही बयां कर रही है.🇮🇳🙏🇮🇳@yadavtejashwi @TajinderBagga pic.twitter.com/HvWyFj0XqZ
— Sachin Yadav (@SachinY06417799) April 6, 2020
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विश्व जब डगमगा रहा था ! हिंदुस्तान जगमगा रहा था !! आज की तस्वीर यही बयां कर रही है.🇮🇳🙏🇮🇳@narendramodi @VasundharaBJP pic.twitter.com/jYNUedlu4W
— jeevantyagi (@jeevantyagi9) April 6, 2020
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The same viral graphic was also quote tweeted by Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan
The World sees us .. we are ONE .. https://t.co/68k9NagfkI
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) April 5, 2020
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
Also Read: Video Of Birds Flocking In Ahmedabad Not Linked To COVID-19 Lockdown
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral graphic is an illustration and not an actual image that was taken during the nine-minute-lights-off event.
On observing the graphic, the light is only emitting from India and is uniformly distributed across the country which would not be the case if it was an actual image.
Additionally, we found the viral graphic was being shared prior to 9 pm on April 5, 2020, as a sarcastic joke that the image would go viral soon.
The graphic is a play on all the images that went viral in the past falsely claiming that they show India's night sky during Diwali taken by the United States space agency NASA.
That beautiful image of nighttime Diwali lights in India? It's a really old fake https://t.co/u3wtMAYxyO pic.twitter.com/ByrR4sxJWz
— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) November 12, 2015
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