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| - Fact Check: Arjun Kapoor never forced Cristiano Ronaldo to click selfie with him — viral tweet is doctored
A screenshot of a tweet allegedly made by footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has gone viral on social media, with the claim that Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor forced him to take a selfie with him in such a way that they appear to be friends.
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India Today Fact Check
This screenshot has been digitally altered. Ronaldo never tweeted any such thing. This selfie was taken during a promotional event in 2018 in Madrid.
Following the #boycottbollywood trend flooding social media, actor Arjun Kapoor issued a statement about the film industry making a mistake by staying silent on this issue. The actor said it was high time the film fraternity came together and did something about it. Consequently, he became the target of online trolling.
Around this time, a screenshot of a tweet allegedly made by footballer Cristiano Ronaldo went viral. Featuring Ronaldo’s selfie with Kapoor, the tweet reads: “This unknown guy forcefully rushed in to my dressing room and forced me to take a selfie with him the way we look like friends. What a looser.”
Many online mocked Kapoor as they shared this screenshot. The archived version of this tweet can be seen here.
But did Ronaldo tweet this? AFWA’s investigation found that the screenshot was digitally altered. Ronaldo never tweeted this. His selfie with Arjun Kapoor dates back to 2018.
The telltale signs
While the Twitter handle is the correct one, and the account appeared verified, there are subtle hints all over the tweet that point to its lack of authenticity. There are multiple mistakes in the tweet. The words “loser” and “into” have been misspelt as “looser” and “in to” — something that seems suspect.
When we searched online, we found that this screenshot was not new at all. It was shared on social media back in 2018 as well.
However, we couldn’t find any such tweet on Ronaldo’s Twitter account.
The date mentioned in the screenshot was May 23, 2018. So, we tried to look for Ronaldo’s deleted tweets posted around this date on the archiving website, Wayback Machine. However, we couldn’t find any such tweet.
The selfie
Upon reverse searching the viral photo, we found it on Arjun Kapoor’s Instagram page in a post from May 16, 2018. Kapoor wrote in the caption: “Amazing feeling meeting & talking football with Cristiano !!! Heck of a player, heck of a guy. All the best for Kiev & Russia.”
Kapoor had tagged the luggage brand American Tourister in the same Instagram post. Subsequent refined searches led us to a video the brand had shared on its YouTube channel on June 22, 2018. In it, Kapoor, among others, could be seen meeting Ronaldo. As per the description on the channel, nineteen influencers from around the world met Ronaldo in Madrid. Indian actor Ayushmann Khurrana was also a part of this event.
Khurrana also shared his selfie with Ronaldo on Twitter on May 16, 2018. The backdrop in both selfies features the same advertisement for American Tourister. This clearly points to the fact that the viral photo is from the same event.
Did Kapoor and Ronaldo interact?
Yes. We found multiple media reports from 2018 about the two. The Hindustan Times reported that when Kapoor met the Portuguese footballer, he told him about his fanbase in India. Responding to this, the latter had said that he would love to visit India, adding that he was aware of how much Indians loved him.
It is very unlikely Kapoor “forced” Ronaldo to take a selfie with him in a brand event such as this. Also, had Ronaldo tweeted any such thing about Kapoor, it would have definitely made the news. However, there are no reports indicating this.
To further make sure of this, AFWA got in touch with Ronaldo’s spokesperson, who said this tweet’s screenshot was “fake”. Thus, we concluded that the tweet being used to mock Kapoor right now never existed in the first place.
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