Claim
A Facebook post claims that Prashant Bhushan is standing for Tik Tok and has a history of supporting Islamic terrorists and anti-national people. This claim was posted 1 July, 2020 by a Facebook account called राष्ट्रवाद सर्वोपरि. On checking its page transparency we found that the account was created on 17, May 2020.
Accompanied with this claim is a screenshot of another post from a Twitter account called The Express of India which claims that Bhushan filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court against the government order to ban 59 Chinese apps.
The screenshot from The Express of India is widely circulating on social media platforms since yesterday. Below is an example of another viral image.
Fact Check
The claims in context are with regard to Prashant Bhushan, an advocate in the Supreme Court of India. These claims come after his response to a Twitter post by Tik Tok India which states that it’s making a contribution of Rs. 30 crore to the PM Cares fund. Bhushan’s 30 June tweet says, “Tik Tok’s humble contribution of 30 Crores to humble Chaiwala’s fund! So ungrateful!”
The first claim in the Facebook post alleges that Bhushan stands for Tik Tok and has a history of supporting Islamic terrorists and anti-national people. We haven’t found any credible evidence or news story which suggests this. Therefore, this claim has no basis to support it.
The accompanying screenshot is from a parody Twitter account (@ExpressOfIndia) created on 20 April, 2020 with 571 followers at the time of writing this fact check. The description in its profile reads:
“Independent Satire News Outlet. Parody Editorial. All Tweets Are Fake. In Memory Of @TiimesHow.”
This Twitter account impersonates the actual news organisation The Indian Express by trying to copy its logo, font and doing a wordplay with its name. See image comparing the two accounts below:
The parody account in its bio pays its “respect” to the now suspended fake account @TiimesHow.
Implication of “1 particular community” in the tweet is to the Muslim community in reference to recent stories about them using Tik Tok in this pandemic.
As a final confirmation, we reached out to Mr. Bhushan himself, who clarified on call that he did not file any PIL in the Supreme Court against the government order of banning the 59 Chinese apps and that the claims are false.
Our other fact checks related to Tik Tok can be read here.
Conclusion
The claims in context with regard to Prashant Bhushan are false.
Tools Used
- Twitter advanced search
- Google advanced search
Result: False
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