Did ANI share & delete X post on Modi being ignored in G7 photo? No, viral screenshot is doctored

Since the three-day Group of Seven (G7) Summit concluded in Canada on June 17, a purported screenshot of an X post by news agency ANI has been circulating on social media. The screenshot has an image of global leaders, and says, “#WATCH | PM Modi Invited to G7 summit, only to be not invited on stage? #BoycottG7Summit.”

According to the screenshot, the image was posted at 1425 hours IST (2:25 pm) on June 17.

The 51st G7 Summit, held in Kananaskis, Alberta, in Canada, this year, was carefully scrutinised by the Indian media because of the last-minute invite to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The late invitation was seen as a sign of strained India-Canada relations.

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States form the Group of Seven, or G7. However, the European Union and several non-G7 countries, including India, are also invited to the summit. Invitation to non-G7 members is the prerogative of the host country.

An X user, گلویندر (@rebelliousdogra), posted the screenshot at 1429 hours on June 17 shortly after the time stamp in ANI’s post, claiming that ANI had deleted the post. (Archive)

Soon after, another user, @yasarshah_SP, shared the same screenshot, claiming the news agency had taken down the post. (Archive)

Several other users posted the same screenshot, claiming that the news agency had first posted and later deleted the tweet with the contentious caption. Below are a few instances.

Click to view slideshow.

Fact Check

To begin with, the controversial caption and hashtag #BoycottG7Summit made us doubt the authenticity of the screenshot.

We checked all X posts made by ANI on June 17 between 1420 and 1440 hours IST. Within those 20 minutes, the news agency had posted five times, but none of the posts were related to the G7 Summit. Further, we checked all posts made by the news agency between June 16 and 18 related to the G7, and none of them used the image in the viral screenshot showing the G7 leaders.

Then, to check whether ANI deleted any post between 1420 and 1440 hours, we checked all replies to ANI during that window. Note that even if an X post is deleted, the replies to it do not get deleted unless users do so themselves. We found no replies to any deleted post during that time.

Also, for much of its G7 coverage, ANI had used the hashtag #PMModiAtG7. News agencies with such a wide reach are unlikely to use hashtags such as #BoycottG7Summit.

Click to view slideshow.

 

Alt News also reached out to ANI for comment. The news agency’s editor, Smita Prakash, categorically told Alt News that the screenshot was a fake image and that ANI had not posted any such tweet. Also, while investigating, one of the X users who shared the screenshot told Alt News that the image was created by them and not an actual ANI tweet. However, we were unable to corroborate this with metadata.

Based on these findings, we can conclude that the viral screenshot on Modi being left out at G7 bearing ANI’s signage is doctored. The news agency did not make any such post.

(With inputs from Mohammed Zubair and Diti Pujara)

The post Did ANI share & delete X post on Modi being ignored in G7 photo? No, viral screenshot is doctored appeared first on Alt News.

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