A two-year-old picture of a huge farmers' gathering in Thane, Maharashtra is being passed off as the recent 'Delhi Chalo' march organised by farmers of Punjab and Haryana.
BOOM found that the now-viral picture is from March 2018 when around 25,000 farmers had marched towards Mumbai in a protest march against anti-farmer policies.
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The ongoing farmers protest at the borders of Delhi has seen a flurry of fake news and misinformation on social media platforms. Farmers mainly from Punjab and Haryana have been camping at the borders of Delhi protesting against the central government's Farm laws. In this backdrop, several images from old farmer protests are being revived on social media platforms linking them to the ongoing protests.
The viral picture shows a sea of people sitting on an arterial road.
A long caption with the picture reads 'Hello There, 96 Thousand Tractors and 12 million Farmers are protesting on the border of the Capital of India. Dear World, it's the Longest March in the history of Planet Earth. Please Support Us, The Produce from these farms is daily on your Tables. Indian Media is paid by Agencies and is fabricating the protest. Support Us in writing a new chapter in the History of this Planet Earth. Just forward this text to any one of your friend, this is the only contribution we need from you. Let it be the Payment of Health, farmer have given you, and your Family!'.
View the post below and access its archived version here.
View archive here.
Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on the picture and found a tweet from the verified Twitter handle of CPI (M) which had the same image.
View the March 11, 2018 tweet below and check its archive here.
We also observed a Mumbailive.com watermark on the image. Taking cue from it, we did a Google image search with relevant words and found the same image tweeted from Mumbai Live's twitter handle on March 10, 2018.
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The tweet stated that around 25,000 farmers marching towards Mumbai to protest against the anti-farmer policies had gathered at the Eastern Expressway Highway opposite Viviana Mall in Thane on March 10, 2018.
BOOM also found a report published in Indian Express on March 11, 2018 which had carried the same image.
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