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Published 19:40 IST, April 6th 2020

Fact check: Did Brazilians participate in PM Modi's '9-minutes light off' activity?

Fact check: A recent viral video on social media was suggesting that people from Brazil have participated in India's light off moment has been proven wrong.

Reported by: Amir Khollam
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Recently, the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in a number of fake stories being circulated on social. While some of these stories promise an unbeatable cure to the coronavirus and others conspire the origin of it. But one common link between all these stories doing rounds on social media is that they are unverified and fake pieces of information. A new video with false claims has now gone viral on social media. 

Also read: Fact Check: Has NASA confirmed Navagraha's perfect alignment on 5th April at 9pm?

Claim -

Recently, PM Narendra Modi had appealed Indian citizens to light candles, lamps or turn on mobile phone flashes in order to mark the war against coronavirus. Now, a video going viral on the internet is claiming that people from Brazil also observed this activity. The video shows Brazilian people on the streets with their phone flashlights on and playing music on the streets. 

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Also read: Fact Check: Did NASA share satellite image of India from 9 PM Diya event on April 5?

Rating - False

Various sources have confirmed now that the video is fake. Though the Brazilan citizens did take to the streets and lit their flashlights, it wasn't done on April 4, 2020. The original video was posted on Facebook over two weeks ago. The act of Brazilian citizens coming together to lit torches of their mobile phones had no connection with Pm Narendra Modi appealing Indian citizens to do the same. 

Also read: Fact Check: Does Home Minister Amit Shah have Coronavirus?

Origin - 

The video was shared by a Facebook user who claimed that television channels of Brazil showcased PM Modi's video on their regional news channels, which prompted them to carry out the activity. The video was then shared by many Facebook users and it quickly became viral. Check out snippets of the video below -

corona go
go corona

Google Trends analysis - 

The video quickly rose to fame and went viral on Facebook and other social media platforms. This resulted in a number of people searching for the video's credibility on Google. Check it out below - 

go corona

Also read: Fact Check: Was Prince Charles cured of Coronavirus by Ayurveda and Homeopathy?

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Also read: Fact Check: Can police take action against Whatsapp group admins for COVID-19 based jokes?

Updated 19:40 IST, April 6th 2020

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