Fact-check: Was Wikipedia updated with time of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death even before he had died

Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has become a topic of discussion for many. While a group of fans is trying to get ‘justice’ for him, those who ‘rule’ the film industry have taken a step back and completely stopped talking about him or problems with the industry. Amidst all this, various social media users have come up with another conspiracy theory revolving around Sushant’s death. They claimed that the actor’s Wikipedia page was edited, and someone added the information of his suicide much before he committed suicide.

As per the police, the postmortem report suggests that he committed suicide at around 10:30 AM. Social media users claim that the Wikipedia page was edited at 8:59 AM, where the editor added the info of his death and claimed that he committed suicide. The fan also shared screenshots of the edit.

https://twitter.com/DjJnf2/status/1277601631341670402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Other twitter users also jumped in and supported the theory that there is a bigger conspiracy behind Sushant’s death. The claim made its way to some entertainment websites as well.

https://twitter.com/Shrutiiijain/status/1277550526901530626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Fact Check

Before we jump to any conclusion, we must understand how things work on Wikipedia. It is an open-source encyclopedia where anyone can make changes in the information provided. The editors check and confirm the changes, and if they find any problem with it, they reverse the difference and, in some cases, ban the user. Because Wikipedia is an open-source website, it is not considered to be an authentic source of information by academia. In the past, Wikipedia showed its biased attitude based on political ideology as well.

Here the issue is with not the information per se but with the time zone. According to the “View History” section of Wikipedia, someone started editing Sushant’s page at around 8:55 AM on 14th June 2020. Before that, the last change was made on 8th June 2020. At 8:59 AM, the Wikipedia user added the information that he has committed suicide.

The IP location of the editor is 139.5.242.88 that can be traced to New Delhi. That means someone from India edited it.

Though the time shows 8:59 AM, it is not according to Indian Standard Time. Wikipedia uses Coordinated Universal Time or UTC that is 5:30 hours behind IST. Anyone who changed the article on Wikipedia on Sushant Singh Rajput did it at 8:59 AM UTC that converts to 2:29 PM IST.

The claim that the fan made about someone being aware of Sushant’s death before he committed suicide is false.