With patriotism among Indians at an all-time high, especially amidst the simmering tensions along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh in the wake of bloody Galwan valley clashes, Mensxp.com, an Indian lifestyle portal for men which belongs to the Times Internet, published an article, characterising the patriotism of the Indian PUBG users.
The article published on mensxp.com alleged that a patriotic Indian PUBG user demanded his Chinese teammate on the verge of being eliminated from the game to say ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ for reviving him and bringing him back to the game, describing it as one of the way’s of “showing patriotism”. Furthermore, the article said that the aforementioned PUBG user also urged other Indian PUBG players to consider it as a patriotic duty to not revive Pakistani and Chinese players before they utter slogans hailing India.
“That’s right. According to a report on CISTHETA, an Indian PUBG player made his Chinese teammate say ‘Hindustan Zindabad’ before he reviving him and bringing him back to the game. Well, that’s one way of showing patriotism,” said the article while adding that the Indian gamer had seemingly spoken to the CISTHETHA reporter and made a request to all Indian PUBG players to observe it as their patriotic duty to not revive Chinese and Pakistani players before hearing Hindustan Zindabad from them.
The portal owned by the Times Internet explicitly quoted CisTheta Global website from where they have sourced the article claiming that an Indian PUBG user has asked his Chinese teammate to chant Hindustan Zindabad for seeking revival. But the fact is, The CisTheta Global is a satirical website, known for its humorous take on contemporary events. A glance on the homepage of the website shows that all articles published by the website are satire articles.
However, the Mensxp.com fell for the satirical website, treating its satire about the Indian PUBG user demanding his Chinese teammate to chant patriotism slogan as truth and published the same in its article. While the Times Internet article did mention that it was unsure about the veracity of the claims made by CisTheta Global, but the satire was clearly lost on them.