Lighthouse Journalism found a video being widely shared on social media platforms after the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, alleged theft of votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
We found that the video is a compilation of two different clips, both old and unrelated to the recent claims.
Claim:
X user Hiamuddin Khan shared the video with a misleading claim on his profile.
Other users are also sharing the same video with similar claims.
Investigation:
We began the investigation by uploading the video to the InVid tool and extracting the keyframes from it. We then ran reverse image search on the keyframes obtained from the video.
We conducted a reverse image search on the screenshots obtained from the first clip, which showed a crowd gathering in front of a BJP office. The board seen in the video prompted that the video was from Durg.
During the reverse image search, we found a longer version of the video uploaded on Instagram.
We could see that on the banner on the e-rickshaw was written, ‘Rojgar do (provide employment).
We found the video uploaded on Virat News on May 28 this year.
The caption said: Congress party protested strongly in demand of regular employment for MNREGA laborers. Congress workers under the leadership of Durg Rural District President Rakesh Thakur ji surrounded the Collector’s Office and demanded BJP government give their rights to the laborers. During the demonstration, slogans were also raised against government policies.
We also found a news report about the Congress protest in Durg.
We then went on to check the other clip being shared along with the claim.
Through this, we found the visuals fromthe second clip in a video uploaded on the YouTube channel ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh Live News’
The video was uploaded on December 9, 2024.
We also found the video uploaded on the YouTube channel, ‘India News Bihar Jharkhand’.
The description said: Delhi के गाँधी विहार में BPSC अभ्यर्थियों ने नॉर्मलाइजेशन का किया विरोध |
The video was uploaded on December 6, 2024.
We also found a few reports about the demonstrations by BPSC students.
Conclusion: Old, unrelated videos go viral, claiming to be recent as ‘vote chori’ rallies organised by the Opposition. The viral claim is misleading.
