Published 16:44 IST, December 15th 2020

Fact Check: Did 250 million people gather for a strike in India over the Farm Laws?

A Twitter handle on December 3 claimed that 250 million people had come on to the streets organizing a massive strike against the backdrop of the Farm Laws.

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Origin

A Twitter handle @zachjcarter on December 3 claimed that 250 million people h come on to streets of India organizing a massive strike against backdrop of protests over Farm Laws. handle shared 4 ims in his tweet which showed a mass movement with thousands gared on streets organizing a strike. His post became particularly misleing since country is witnessing farmers' agitation over last 20 days, with many joining two toger to believe that large numbers h taken to streets against 3 agrarian laws in country.

Here's truth

ne of ims shared by misleing handle belong to Farmers protest. Twitter, which w takes extra caution over fake information has also labeled post as 'Manipulated Media.'

So where are ims from?

1. first im is from Ahmedab dated January 13, 2020. Published by Portside and credited to photographer Ajit Solanki from Associated Press (AP), photo belongs to nationwide bandh called by Communist Party of India (CPI-M) in January. Here, various members of tre unions can be seen gared during general strike.

2. second im shows a score of people gared on an unidentified ro to block traffic. Tracing back origin of im, Republic learned that this im was from a farmers' march organized in Maharashtra in 2018. march h been organized by farmers in Mumbai demanding a complete loan waiver and transfer of ivasi land to farmers. tably, im was also shared by Communist Party Of India (Marxist)’s General-Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Twitter in 2018.

3. third and fourth ims belong to nationwide shutdown called by CPI(M) members in January 2020. first is from a railway track in Punjab's Amritsar where hundreds of tre union workers can be seen gared at station as a part of ir 'Rail Roko Andolan.' second is tre union's protest at Amritsar's Bhandari bridge. Both date January 8, 2020, and have thing to do with farmers' protest of vember- December.