A fake screenshot purporting to show Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu apologising to Indians "with folded hands" for his ministers' recent remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi is viral online.
BOOM found that the screenshot is fake and Muizzu made no such apology on X which he later deleted as being claimed.
Maldives recently suspended three of its ministers, Malsha Shareef, Mariyam Shiuna and Abdulla Mahzoom Majid, for making derogatory remarks against Modi calling him a "clown", "terrorist", and "puppet of Israel". The comments were made under one of Modi's posts about his recent visit to the island of Lakshadweep. Following this, hashtags such as #BoycottMaldives and #SupportIndianIslands are trending, wherein celebrities including Akshay Kumar have responded to the row by condemning the Maldivian ministers' comments and urging Indians to visit Lakshadweep instead.
Muizzu, who won the presidential elections in September last year campaigning on anti-India rhetoric, is known to favour close ties with China.
Amid this, the screenshot of a post on X, purportedly made from President Muizzu's verified account, shows him apologising to Indians. The post reads, "I apologise to our Indian friends with folded hands on behalf of our ministers and their irresponsible comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Looking forward to welcoming friends from India and strengthening bilateral relations between our nations." According to the screenshot, the post was made on January 7, 2024.
The screenshot was shared by right-wing account Rishi Bagree on X with the caption, "Maldives Pres tenders an unconditional Apology with a Folded Hand".
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
BOOM has previously fact-checked several false and misleading claims made by Rishi Bagree. Read here.
The screenshot is also being circulated on Facebook with a similar caption.
Click here to view.
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the screenshot was fake and President Muizzu has issued no such apology.
We scanned President Muizzu's verified X account and did not find any such post on his page. The last post made by his verified account was on January 5, 2024.
Further, we looked for a cached version of his page to find any posts he may have deleted. A snapshot of his account from one day ago confirmed that the last post he made was on January 5 and not January 7, as per the claim from the viral screenshot.
We then looked up details of Muizzu's posting activities on Social Blade, a tool that tracks an account's posting activity, including deleted posts. According to this, too, there was no record of Muizzu deleting any post after January 7.
We then used advanced search on X to look for any replies to Muizzu's deleted post, which would confirm its existence, and again found that all the latest replies he received were for his January 5 post. Unlike other social media platforms, replies to a post on X are visible even if the original tweet has been deleted.
A spokesperson from Muizzu's office responded to the row and said, "All government officials responsible for the comments have been suspended from their posts effective immediately", in a statement to the BBC.
The Government of Maldives, in a separate press release stated, "The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives."