Reportedly while some are done with an intent to spread misinformation, some are politically motivated, others are simply to create communal divides. A recent message that went viral on social network had pictures of a man serving biriyani followed by pictures of medicines. The accompanying text by user RD Singh was Islamophobic and false in nature, spreading misinformation that a shop in coimbatore was serving separate biriyani to hindus laced with drugs that would make one impotent.
When speaking to reporters, coimbatore City police Commissioner sumit sharan IPS says, this is fake news, please do not believe it. We are trying to find out who the handle belongs to. We will take appropriate action once we find out. Furthermore a simple reverse image search of the pictures in the message shows that the image with the medicines is from 2019 when illegal drugs worth Rs 4 million were recovered from an elderly Sri Lankan man and his son. A report says the two were taken into custody following a tipoff.
Similarly, the picture of the Muslim man serving biriyani is the thumbnail that appears for a 2016 video on youtube titled indian Muslim festival DUM BIRYANI Preparation for 30 people & street food which has over 40 lakh views. Several users were quick to point out that the news was fake and that the pictures of the medicines were actually from Sri Lanka. Apparently the user, whose bio reads honoured to be followed by piyush goyal Saheb has given many similar claims.
