By Anmol Alphonso
Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia and several Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters fell for a tweet from a parody AAP Gujarat Twitter account, which deliberately peddled a photo from Seoul, South Korea as an AAP roadshow in Rajkot Gujarat.
BOOM found that the photo shows a candlelight vigil in Seoul to mourn the victims of a stampede on October 29, 2022 at a Halloween event.
Sisodia, who retweeted the photo, undid his retweet after being called out on Twitter.
On November 6, 2022, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held aroadshow in Rajkot East constituency in Gujarat campaigning for his party in the run-up for the assembly elections in the state next month.
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The parody Twitter handle - AAP Gujarat | Mission 2022 | 150+Seats ⁽ᴾᵃʳᵒᵈʸ⁾ (@18Kishann) tweeted the photo with the caption which when translated reads, "In 'Rajkot' the local people participated in the road-show of "AAP" in large numbers."
(In Hindi - 'राजकोट' में स्थानीय लोग बड़ी संख्या में "आप" के रोड-शो में शामिल हुए।)
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Manish Sisodia fell for the parody account's tweet and retweeted this tweet with the photo. BJP Gujarat's official Twitter handle called out Sisodia for retweeting the tweet. Sisodia has since removed the retweet.
We were able to cross-check that the tweet was retweeted by Sisodia, as the advanced Twitter search results showed tweet replies to both Sisodia (@msisodia) and the parody handle (@18Kishann) under the viral tweet.
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The same photo is also being shared on Facebook with the false claim
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the account that tweeted the viral photo is a parody handle and the viral photo is from Seoul, South Korea from a candle light vigil on November 5, 2022 held to mourn the victims of the Halloween stampede on October 29, 2022, in Itaewon.
We ran a reverse image search using Google Images on the viral photo which search results showed news reports that the photo is from Seoul, South Korea.
The Korean Times had the same photo in an article reporting on the candlelight vigils with the photo caption reading, "Participants hold candles and placards at a rally to mourn victims killed in the Itaewon crowd crush near City Hall in central Seoul on Nov. 5, the final day of the weeklong national mourning period for the disaster that killed at least 156 people. Yonhap"
Additionally, the Twitter account (@18Kishann) impersonating AAP's Gujarat handle in its bio states that it is a parody handle with the caption, "Temporary Parody account of AAP Gujarat This account only for Fun | Not affiliated with any Political Party |"
