New York Times responds to fake PM Modi image viral on social media

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Sep 29, 2021 at 1:25 PM

New York/Bhubaneswar: The New York Times on Wednesday issued a clarification that an image of a front page article featuring India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the headline ‘Last, Best Hope of Earth’ was ‘completely fabricated’.

A photoshopped image of an NYT front page started doing the rounds on social media following PM Modi’s arrival in the United States of America for his three-day tour which included attending a QUAD leaders’ summit and holding bilateral talks with US President Joe Biden.

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“Resharing or circulating photoshopped images online only adds to misinformation and uncertainty, at a time when truthful, trusted journalism is needed most,” NYT said in a tweet.

This is a completely fabricated image, one of many in circulation featuring Prime Minister Modi. All of our factual reporting on Narendra Modi can be found at:https://t.co/ShYn4qW4nT pic.twitter.com/gsY7AlNFna

— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) September 28, 2021

The fake photo features a large image of PM Modi with a caption, “world’s most loved and most powerful leader is here to bless us”. The image carries the date of September 26 but the word ‘September’ is spelt incorrectly.

Several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and supporters widely shared the morphed image on social media. BJP’s youth wing’s National General Secretary Rohit Chahal shared the fake image with his 76,000-odd followers on Twitter.