False: Photo Shows India Illuminated During PM Modi's 9 PM, 9 Minutes Appeal

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

Click here to view, and here for an archive.

Click here to view, and here for an archive.

The same viral graphic was also quote tweeted by Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan

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.

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