Social media can be used productively as well as destructively. We have seen that again today. While a CatchNews journalist was using social media to spread malicious lies, he was very soon exposed by others users on the social media itself.
This is not new. Recently, we had exposed how an anti-Modi cop Sanjiv Bhatt, was caught spreading tension in Kashmir via social media, when he used a highly misleading picture, which was then used as propaganda by Pakistani users. Today we saw a repeat of the same.
CatchNews.com is a new media portal, owned by Rajasthan Patrika Group. It doesn’t have a penchant for keeping things factual and it appears, they have got this quality from their Editors. CatchNews Associate Editor Aditya Menon tweeted the following picture with the caption that said the picture was taken from Kashmir. It evoked emotional responses from many, and some might have been driven to hate the Indian army. But as social media is accustomed to, the facts of this picture too were dug out. What was claimed to be a picture of Kashmir was found to be an old picture of Syria, from 2012:
https://twitter.com/AdityaMenon22/status/766984991465058306
https://twitter.com/UnSubtleDesi/status/767044486828392448
https://twitter.com/TajinderBagga/status/767047132050255872
The picture used by Aditya Menon is not only old, but it has also been repeatedly used by propaganda agents of Kashmir.
Does an editor of a media house spread untrue pictures by mistake? Or was this a deliberate ploy? Why was the editor stoking emotions which go against India and the Indian Army the plan here? Does the editor not know that a simple reverse search of the image can solve such issues?
Later, the journalist in question deleted the tweet can claimed “he was misled” into spreading it. However, alert social media users again found out that this could be a false claim by the journalist, because he had shared the same picture on his Facebook account, and it was clear that the picture dates back to 2013:
https://twitter.com/ShootinThoughts/status/767088275638980608