Hyderabad: A fake social media post on the state of the Indian economy during the corona virus pandemic – attributed to industrialist Ratan Tata – has gone viral on both Facebook and Twitter. Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, who has been warning the rumour mongers against spreading of misinformation and fake news over social media, too had come under the influence of reported fake news.
The post claims that Ratan Tata has written: “I do not have any doubt that we will defeat the corona hands down and the Indian economy will bounce back in a great manner.”, However, the words have been falsely attributed to Ratan Tata.
Anjani Kumar, Hyderabad’s Commissioner of Police, who also shared the viral ‘motivational’ post,but he was trolled for posting the alleged fake news through his official twitter handle. Later on, the viral post was removed from the twitter handle.
In a series of posts on Twitter and Instagram accounts on Saturday, 11 April, Tata confirmed that he has “never said, nor written this.” He added that it was important to always verify news circulated on Whats App and other social media platforms. “Fake news is harmful to us and we must always verify it,” Tata said.
Many twitter users reacted to the fake motivational post and asked him to remove the post.