Lighthouse Journalism found a video being circulated on social media platforms, it was claimed along with the video that DMK leader is distributing cash and buying voters. During investigation it was found that the video is old and the leader was distributing gifts on account of new year celebrations.
Claim:
X user SK Chakraborty shared the video on his profile.
Check the archive version of the video.
Other users too are sharing the video with similar claims.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by uploading the video in the InVid chrome extension and obtaining several keyframes of the video. We then ran reverse image search on the keyframes one by one.
During the reverse image search on a keyframe we found a Facebook post made on January 3, 2024.
DMK union secretary from Keelaiyur East, Thomas Alva Edison was tagged in the post.
Through Facebook keyword search we found one more video on Facebook.
The hashtag used suggested that this was a video from a New Year party.
We found a video posted on the Facebook profile of the DMK leader.
Using Notta AI we transcribed the audio from this video and translated the text extracted through the same.
The DMK leader Thomas Alva Edison was seen saying in the video that videos circulated are old and are being circulated claiming to be recent. The leader has also registered a complaint in the police station and wants the government to take strict action against those spreading misinformation. He said in the video that he conducted the activities during the New Year.
We also spotted one particular frame which suggested that the video was from new year celebrations.
Conclusion: Old video of DMK leader Thomas Alva Edison distributing new year gifts being shared as recent with misleading claims.
