New Delhi, October 8 (Kaushiki Goel / Pratyush Ranjan, PTI Fact Check): A short video of Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi speaking at a university event in Colombia has gone viral on social media, with users claiming he admitted that his social media presence is “fluff” and that he does not rely on it. The clip was shared with captions suggesting Gandhi’s remarks were an acknowledgement that his online following and views were not genuine or organic.
However, the Press Trust of India’s (PTI) Fact Check Desk found that the video has been selectively cropped and shared out of context. In the full version of his address, Gandhi cautioned students and young professionals against relying solely on social media fame for career growth, calling it a temporary phenomenon. The video was shared with a false claim on social media.
Claim:
A video featuring Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was shared by an X user, ‘BhikuMhatre’, on October 2, claiming that he said his social media presence is a “fluff” and that he does not rely on it.
In the 00:10-second video, Gandhi can be heard saying, “I have a big Social Media Presence, but I would not rely on it. That thing is all Fluff”
The post garnered 32.4k views on social media. Here is the link and archive link to the post, and below is a screenshot of the same.
Investigation
The Desk ran the viral video through the InVid tool and extracted multiple keyframes. Using Google Lens on one keyframe, the Desk found...
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