Did Aditya Thackeray Test HIV Positive? No, TV9 Bulletin is Edited
The news bulletin stating that Thackeray has tested COVID positive had been edited to make the false claim.
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A screenshot of Hindi news outlet TV9 Bharatvarsh’s bulletin has been edited to falsely claim that Maharashtra Chief Minister’s son and state cabinet minister Aditya Thackeray tested positive for HIV/AIDS.
The original bulletin states that Thackeray has tested positive for coronavirus. The Chief Minister’s son also took to Twitter to confirm the news on 20 March 2021.
CLAIM
Several users shared the image on Facebook and Twitter.
User Satish Shukla had garnered over 1,000 likes at the time of writing this article.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
Through a keyword search, we came across the original bulletin on TV9 Bharatvarsh’s YouTube channel, dated 20 March 2021.
The bulletin states that CM Uddhav Thackeray’s son had tested positive for COVID-19. A comparison of the edited image with a screenshot of the original news bulletin can be seen below.
While the rest of the bulletin is in Hindi, ‘HIV/AIDS’ has been added in English.
We also found that the user, ‘@OfficeofSid’ whose watermark can be seen on the viral image had been temporarily taken down by Twitter for violating its media policy.
Aditya Thackeray also confirmed the news on Twitter, stating that he had tested COVID-positive and was experiencing mild symptoms.
Evidently, a screenshot of TV9 Bharatvarsh’s news bulletin has been edited to falsely claim that Thackeray had tested positive for HIV/AIDS.
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