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Fact Check
Claim
Virat Kohli posts Instagram story hailing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after his party’s resounding victory in the Karnataka polls
Fact
No such story was posted, screenshot was digitally created
A purported screenshot of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli’s Instagram story, praising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, went viral amid the results of the Karnataka Assembly elections on May 13, where the Congress registered a thumping comeback victory, winning 136 of the 224 seats.
The archived versions of the screenshot can be seen here and here.
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Newschecker first went to Virat Kohli’s Instagram account, where we did not find any Instagram story, as of 09:45am, May 14. According to Instagram, photos and videos you share to your story disappear from your feed, your profile and direct after 24 hours.
Although early counting trends on May 13 indicated a Congress lead, the verdict was not ascertained till at least shortly after noon, when BJP chief minister Basavaraj Bommai conceded defeat, indicating that the viral Instagram story should have still been on Kohli’s profile when we looked up his account, unless he deleted it before the 24 hours time frame.
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Newschecker then compared the viral screenshot to a genuine Instagram story Kohli posted about Rajasthan Royals cricketer Yashaswi Jaiswal’s record-breaking fifty in a recent IPL match against Kolkata Knight Riders on May 11. You can see a difference in the fonts in Kohli’s username, especially with the shape of the letter ‘l’ in Kohli’s username, indicating that the viral screenshot was altered.
We noticed that only one screenshot of the purported Instagram story of Virat Kohli, apparently taken 17 minutes after it was posted, was being circulated, which is unusual for an account that has 248 million followers. Also, Newschecker saw that the earliest instance of the viral screenshot being posted was from a parody account, @niiravmodi, who is known to post sarcastic tweets.
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Digitally created screenshot of cricketer Virat Kohli’s Instagram story praising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after the party’s win in Karnataka polls has gone viral.
Sources
Virat Kohli’s Instagram account
Image analysis
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Kushel HM
May 18, 2023
Kushel HM
May 18, 2023
Ishwarachandra B G
May 16, 2023
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