A screenshot showing Akshay Kumar tweet after he heard about actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death is being shared falsely claiming that he tweeted before the news about the incident was made public.
The 34-year-old actor, Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his apartment in Bandra in Mumbai on June 14, 2020. The Mumbai police has in its prima facie investigation ruled the death as a case of suicide. The news of the Rajput's death broke out in the afternoon on June 14, 2020.
BOOM found that the screenshot shows a time earlier than the actual tweet time of Kumar's because of the different time zone in the viewer's device. In this case, on changing the timezone from Indian Standard Time (IST) to Eastern Standard Time (EST) the tweet time then changes from 2.21 pm to 5.21 am.
In the viral screenshot, a Twitter user highlights the time stamp on the tweet and asks, how did Kumar tweet at 5.21 am on the morning of June 14, 2020. The tweet screenshot also highlights the timestamp of Kumar's tweet and is being shared on social media questioning how did he know about Singh's death before the news surfaced.
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Viral on Twitter
The same viral screenshot is being shared on Twitter with the false claim.
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Click here to view, and here for an archive.
Also Read:Debunked: Aditya Pancholi Did Not Appear As A Cop At SSR's House
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that Akshay Kumar tweeted at 2.51 pm on June 14, 2020, and not 5.21 am as being falsely claimed. We found Kumar's tweet that day, which shows he did not tweet early morning but late afternoon after the news broke out on Sushant Singh Rajput being found dead.
We then looked for the Twitter user (@NayanaChadicha1), whose tweet reply can be seen in the viral screenshot questioning Kumar. We found the user is named Nayana Chadichal who has since deleted the reply and has also apologised for creating confusion. Chadichal, in replies to others from his account, clarifies that the tweet time was different for him as he lives in the United States.
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We also confirmed the same and changed the time zone in our phone to Eastern Standard Time (EST), New York, United States to Indian Standard Time (IST) that it is set to. The time on the same tweet which earlier showed 2.51 pm for IST automatically changed to 5.21 am for EST.
Comparision
This shows that the viral screenshot has been taken after changing the original time zone (IST) to (EST) on the device, to falsely claim that Kumar tweeted out a condolence tweet before Singh's death.
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation shared on Sushant Singh Rajut fan Facebook groups where conspiracy theories have been shared like a photo of a Mumbai Police officer was shared falsely claiming actor Aditya Pancholi was spotted at Rajput's house disguised as a police officer in order to destroy evidence.
Also Read: Did Sushant Singh Rajput Conceptualise Upcoming Mobile Game Fau-G?