A morphed image of a TIME magazine cover featuring US President Joseph Biden in a headgear and Vice President Kamala Harris in a burqa is viral on social media. The image is viral with the narrative that the TIME magazine published a cover story with Biden and Harris in its latest edition and speculated about their impeachment after the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.
The text on the cover reads, "Impeachment TIME".
The image has been shared in the backdrop of the United States' withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan within August 31 and the simultaneous overthrowing of the Afghan government by the Taliban militia.
According to the NATO website, after several rounds of consultations in April 2021, allied foreign and defence ministers decided to start the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan on May 2021. The NATO allies went into Afghanistan on August 2003, after 9/11 terrorist attacks on the assurance of United States providing strategic help and assistance throughout the country to combat the Taliban militia that claimed responsibility for the attack.
A Facebook post has been captioned as, "Is it time for Joe to go?" See the post here.
Fact Check
BOOM found that the viral image of TIME magazine cover has been edited and its latest edition did not feature US president Joe Biden.
BOOM checked "The Vault", an online archive of the TIME magazine for the year 2021. The latest cover edition is about four civilian astronauts and was released on August 23, 2021. See the online cover here.
BOOM found the new cover of TIME magazine has also been tweeted by Tessa Berenson, associated editor of TIME, on August 12, 2021.
The Game of Editing
BOOM found that the viral image was created after altering the TIME magazine issue of December 21, 2020. The cover edition was titled as "Person of the Year" and featured Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, after they came to power winning the US presidential elections in November, 2020.
BOOM found that the cover of December was edited to include the turban on Biden's head and Harris' image was covered to make her appear in a burkha.
Additionally, we found that the fake cover does not have Time.com printed on the bottom right corner and also proper edition number with date on the top right above.
Here is the comparison below.
BOOM has earlier debunked several fake cover of TIME magazine targeting former US President Donald Trump, criticising Indian media and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BOOM also debunked a sponsored piece on TIME magazine praising Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for handling Covid-19 pandemic in his state, which was run be news outlets.
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