Facebook ‘Independent Fact-Checkers’ has verified the claim made by Himanta Biswa Sarma about the pro-Pakistan slogans raised at Assam’s Silchar Airport by the members of AIUDF upon arrival of its supremo Maulana Badruddin Ajmal as fake.
Facebook which was alleged to be favouring the ruling party by promoting hate speeches and fake news has now established its neutrality by this act.
Two days back Himanta had shared a video where he falsely claimed that the supporters of AIUDF were shouting Pakistan Zindabad. After fact check by Alt News, it was verified that the crowd was shouting Aziz Khan Zindabad and not Pakistan. The news was reported without proper fact-checking by two pro-Government portals called OpIndia and The Frustated India.
It is to be mentioned that both the news channels are blacklisted by Wikipedia for allegedly spreading communal fake news.
When the media asked Himanta about this, he sidelined this in a lighter note by saying that South Karimganj MLA Aziz Khan shouldn’t have kept a name resembling Pakistan.
The independent fact-checkers said that the information has no basis in fact.
Hours after the video had triggered a fresh controversy in the state forcing the registering of several FIRs against the AIUDF leader and supporters, the independent fact-checkers labeled the video posted by Sarma as ‘Fake’.
Clarifying the reasons, the fact-checking team of Boom Live said that several national media outlets have also run the video endorsing Sarma’s claims.
The fact-checking team said, “BOOM analysed several videos uploaded on social media from the same event and found that the crowd shouted Aziz bhai and Aziz Khan zindabad to welcome AIUDF MLA Aziz Khan. Some of the crowded party workers also shouted Ajmal bhai zindabad and AIUDF zindabad to show support to Badruddin Ajmal and the party. None of the videos had the ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans being raised.”
“We found a Facebook video uploaded by a supporter and found the same event shot from a different angle where after the 55-second mark, one can hear various sections of the crowd shouting three slogans – ‘Aziz bhai zindabad’, ‘Ajmal bhai zindabad’ and AIUDF zindabad’,” said the independent fact-checkers.
