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  • 2019-06-03 (xsd:date)
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  • No, these photos do not show a protest against electronic vote machine tampering in India in May 2019 (en)
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  • A photo collage has been shared hundreds of times in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter published in May 2019 alongside a claim that protesters are gathering in Surat, a city in the Indian state of Gujarat, to protest alleged tampering with electronic vote machines (EVM) after the Indian elections. The claim is misleading; the photos have circulated online since at least 2017 in reports about protests in different Indian cities. The photo collage was published in this Facebook post on May 27, 2019 where it has been shared more than 900 times. Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post: A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post The Hindi language caption translates to English as: In Surat, a large number of people are protesting against EVM on the roads without the backing of any politician and no sold out media organisation is showing this news. The whole Surat city is boiling on the roads. At least somewhere the protest against EVMs has started. Share more and more. EVM is a reference to to electronic voting machines , which were used in India's recent elections. Surat is a city in the Indian state of Gujarat. India held elections between April 11 and May 19, 2019 in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a landslide victory, according to this AFP report published on May 24, 2019. The same photo collage was shared on Facebook here and Twitter here alongside a similar claim. The claim is misleading; the photos have actually circulated online since at least 2017 in reports about protests about alleged tampering with EVMs in different Indian cities. A reverse image search on Google for the photo at the top of the photo collage found the image in this report published on the website for Outlook India magazine on May 13, 2017. Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading post highlighted in red (L) and the original image in the article published on the Outlook magazine website (R): A screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading post highlighted in red (L) and original image in the photo gallery of Outlook magazine website (R) The report states in part: The Election Commission's (EC) move towards promoting the use of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) on Friday was received with mixed reactions, some hailed the decision, while others continued to raise doubts about its authenticity. Additional information about the photo was published in an Outlook magazine photo gallery here . The photo appears as the 55th image in the photo gallery. The caption says: Aam Aadmi Party workers protests against alleged ‘EVM tampering’ outside the Election Commission office, in New Delhi. Photo by Tribhuvan Tiwari/Outlook. Another reverse image search for the bottom right image in the photo collage contained in the misleading posts found this article published on January 6, 2018 by English-language news website Scroll.in. Below is a screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading posts highlighted in red (L) and the image on Scroll.in (R): A screenshot comparison of the image in the misleading posts highlighted in red (L) and the image on Scroll.in (R) The Scroll.in photo caption states: People take out a protest march in Ghaziabad demanding an inquiry into EVM machines that were used in the UP assembly elections, on March 14, 2017| Sakib Ali, HT Photo. Ghaziabad is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The Scroll.in report headline states: Opposition parties are set to make a strong pitch against electronic voting machines. Another reverse image search for the image on the bottom left of the photo collage in the misleading posts found the same photo in this tweet published on December 29, 2017. Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post highlighted in red (L) and the image in the December 2017 tweet (R): A screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post highlighted in red (L) and the image in the December 2017 tweet (R) A journalist in AFP’s Delhi bureau translated the Gujarati sign in the background of the bottom left photo in the photo collage to English. It states; Mahatma Gandhi Nagar Gruh, which refers to the town hall in the city of Vadodara. Here is the location on Google Street View. Through a keyword search, AFP found this news report published on the YouTube channel of a local TV channel on December 21, 2017. The Gujarati title of the YouTube video translates to English as: Dec 20, 2017: Dismiss EVM protest by the association in Vadodara to save the country. The report shows protesters gathered outside the Mahatma Gandhi Nagar Gruh for a demonstration over the use of EVMs in Vadodara. Indian fact checking website Alt News also debunked the misleading posts in a report published here on May 29, 2019. (en)
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