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🗨️ Are You Retweeting Tweets From Credible Accounts?

July 02, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Hi, we hope you are doing well wherever you are. We are glad to bring you another edition of ✅ Verified by BOOM - a newsletter that brings you all things verified and news that matters.

👋 I'm Divya Chandra, BOOM's resident fact-checker & producer of this weekly newsletter. I bet you have come across imposter accounts on Twitter that appear to be similar to official ones and this has got you wondering which is which? Don't worry, we have got you covered.

Let's begin!

💡 Whenever you are in a dilemma about whether the Twitter account in question is an authentic/ official Twitter account or not, check for these red flags. 

✔️ 1. WHAT IS THE TWITTER HANDLE?

Last week, a Twitter account impersonating news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) had tweeted, ""If Devendra Fadnavis not made CM this time then I will start hunger strike at Saki Naka railway station" Anna Hazare. (sic)"

You can view the archived version of the tweet 

. 

Now, look at the Twitter handle: @ZackRhea. Why would PTI's handle be named as @ZackRhea? This is the first red flag.

✔️ 2. TWITTER BIO & BLUE TICK VERIFICATION

The Twitter bio of this imposter account reads, "Parody." Hence, giving a hint that it's not an official account.

Further, since PTI is a prominent news agency, it should ideally be verified and carry a 'blue tick' verification. However, it's not visible in this 'parody' handle.

✔️ 3. LINKS/ JOINING DATE

Also, if you see carefully, the link/website URL associated with the handle is not PTI's website and the account joined Twitter in May 2020.

PTI was 

 in 1947 and started functioning in 1949, thus it's highly unlikely that it will join Twitter in 2020. 

✔️ 4. NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS/ WHO IS FOLLOWING?

One should also look at the number of followers the imposter Twitter account has and whether verified/ credible handles are following it or not. In this case, the imposter account has 2,213 followers. Again, highly impossible for an outlet like PTI to have such a low number of followers.

Finally, here's a comparison between the 

 PTI Twitter account and the imposter one.

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Read our fact-check

: 

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🔖 Meanwhile, just a day after a Delhi court remanded Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair—arrested by Delhi police for allegedly 'hurting religious sentiments'

the Twitter handle @balajikijaiin, which went by the name Hanuman Bhakt, disappeared. 

As reports started questioning the mysterious Twitter account, it became active once again. The account @balajikijaiin took offence to a 2018 tweet by Zubair where he had tweeted a photo of a signboard that had been changed from 'Honeymoon Hotel' to 'Hanuman Hotel'. 

💭

Wondering if you can get arrested for an old tweet?

Answer:

Yes. We found examples of how old social media posts have landed people in jail in India years later, in a DECODE story.

👉

🔖 In Udaipur, a tailor Kanhaiyalal was brutally hacked to death for making a social media post supporting former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma's controversial remarks against Prophet Mohammad. The accused have been identified as Gaus Mohammad and Mohd Riyaz Ansari and have been arrested by Rajasthan police. The incident led to protests in Udaipur's Maldas street where the crime occurred. 

Our reporter

Kaisar Andrabi

is on the ground tracking this story. He spoke to the victim's family and this is what they had to say.

👉

The story will be out on BOOM soon.

🔖 Let's now move to the western part of the country that witnessed political twists and turns throughout last week. 

While a floor test was scheduled to be held on Thursday, 30 June in Maharashtra, in a major setback to the Uddhav Thackeray-led government after the Supreme Court allowed it to go on as scheduled, however, the Shiv Sena leader resigned from the chief minister's post and as an MLC.

So, on Thursday evening Eknath Shinde was sworn in as the new Maharashtra chief minister with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as the deputy chief minister. 

But, here is a detailed explainer by BOOM on floor tests, also called as a trust vote or vote of confidence. Who calls for a trust vote? How does the vote take place? Find answers to these and more in our explainer. 

🔖 Moving on to the viral misinformation seen in the last week, a scripted video showing two people describing an alleged FASTag scam was shared on social media with the viral claims warning people to be alert about such scamsters. Also, the scam that the video alleges is not even possible and has been disputed by experts.

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🔖 Further, several prominent social media handles claimed that Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, great-grandfather of activist Teesta Setalvad, was a member of the 'Hunter Commission' on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre incident, which gave a clean chit to Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, who led the charge on firing at the civilians causing the massacre. 

The posts insinuate that Sir Setalvad was party to the decision to provide a clean chit to Dyer. However, it's a false claim and you can read the full story to find out how we, at BOOM, debunked the claim. 

🤔 We have been rigorously conducting LIVE workshops on busting fake news and telling you how to consume media. We have launched a hands-on fact-checking workshop in Hindi that will be conducted on

22 July at 6 PM.

If you have suggestions about this newsletter or want us to conduct workshops on specific topics, drop us a line at 👉 

 and we will get back to you in a jiffy.

Thanks for reading. See you next Saturday 👋