It gained a massive criticism when a tweet by a parody account of Republic Tv quoted journalist Rana Ayyub saying: “Minor child rapists are also human, do they have no human rights. This Hindutva Government is bringing ordinance for death to child rapists just to hang muslims in larger numbers. Muslims aren’t safe in India anymore.”
An account @republicTv that is not an official Twitter account of the news channel (The real one is @Republic) later deleted the tweet and has now has deleted the account itself. The tweet went viral even on Facebook and people started condemning Ayyub for her stance towards rapists. She was slammed for her ‘views’, particularly by right-wing users.
https://twitter.com/rajinikanthoff/status/988255165487591424?tfw_site=thewire_in&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthewire.in%2Fmedia%2Frana-ayyub-fake-news
Some people though understood the tweet as fake as the account was not marked with blue ticks; however, a lot of people fell for it and considered it to be an original statement by the journalist.
Meanwhile, clarifying it was not her, Ayyub on Facebook said: “The enormity of the fake news problem in India. This tweet has gone viral on whats app/ facebook/ twitter. My phone is inundated with messages from well meaning folks asking me to be ashamed for giving this statement. Few have realised that it is a fake twitter profile and it is being shared on almost every third facebook page/ whats app group. This is a virtual lynch mob!”