Monday, March 3, 2025

Fact Check

Virat Kohli Watching Rahul Gandhi’s Press Conference? No, Viral Photo Is Digitally Altered

Written By Vasudha Beri, Edited By Pankaj Menon
Mar 23, 2024
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Claim
Virat Kohli watching Rahul Gandhi’s press conference on his mobile phone.

Fact
Photograph has been digitally altered to place a still from Gandhi’s press conference on Kohli’s mobile screen.

A photograph showing Indian cricketer Virat Kohli watching Rahul Gandhi’s press conference on his mobile phone is being widely shared on social media platforms. Multiple users shared the image claiming to show the “exclusive visuals” of “Virat Kohli watching RG’s PC yesterday.” Newschecke found that the viral image has been digitally manipulated.

The image is being widely shared on X.

Archived versions of such posts can be found here, here, here and here.

Multiple Facebook users also posted the photograph.

Such posts can be found here, here, here and here.

Also Read: Viral Ad Of Virat Kohli Promoting Online Casino Is Not Real, But Deepfake

Fact Check/Verification

A Google lens search on the viral image led us to an X post by @BluntIndianGal, dated March 21, 2024. It carried a similar picture of Kohli on his phone with the caption, “Can you guys decode what is Kohli scrolling in his phone 👀.”

Screengrab from X post by @BluntIndianGal

On comparing the viral image with the photograph of the cricketer posted by @BluntIndianGal, we could conclude that a still from Rahul Gandhi’s press conference was digitally added in the widely circulated picture.

Virat Kohli Watching Rahul Gandhi’s Press Conference?
(L-R) Viral image and image posted on X by @BluntIndianGal

Also Read: Old Visuals From ‘No Vote To BJP’ Campaign From 2021 Shared As Recent

We found that the photograph was also shared by a verified fan page of Kohli on Facebook, ViratGang on March 21, 2024, with the caption “Virat Kohli chilling before the shoot for Jio advertisement commence. 😊”

Screengrab from Facebook post by ViratGang

Notably, the original picture was shared by multiple fan pages of Kohli on March 21, 2024 like this, this and this. While we observed that the edited picture with the caption “Virat Kohli watching RG’s PC yesterday,” was posted on Facebook and X on March 22, 2024. 

Also Read: 2021 Video Of TMC Leader Being Chased Away In Bengal Shared As Recent

Conclusion

We could thus conclude that the viral photograph of Viral Kohli watching Rahul Gandhi’s press conference has been digitally edited. 

Result: Altered Photo

Sources
X post by @BluntIndianGal, dated March 21, 2024
Facebook Post By ViratGang, Dated March 21, 2024


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