Some images are being shared widely on social media with a claim that they show Lord Ram’s photos being displayed on the billboards at New York Times Square on the occasion of Ayodhya Ram Temple foundation stone laying ceremony on 05 August 2020. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the posts.
Claim: Photos of Lord Ram being displayed on the billboards at New York Times Square.
Fact: While it is true that a billboard at the New York Times Square has displayed the photo of Lord Ram and a 3D visualization of Ayodhya Ram Temple, the posted photos are fake. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
When the posted image was run through Yandex Reverse Image Search, a similar image was found in the search results. But, it is a mirror image of the posted photo and does not have Lord Ram’s pictures on the billboards. The surroundings, the positions of people and cars are found to be same in both the photos. It was found that the original photo is being circulated on the internet at least since 2011. The same photo can be also found on multiple wallpaper websites. The print of the same photo can be found being sold on websites like eBay and Amazon, which credited the photo to Jose Fuste Raga.
On doing the reverse image search, a similar photo with the same surroundings and people at the same locations can be found in an article published by ‘CNN Arabic’ in 2019. In the original photo, it can be seen that, in the place of Lord Ram’s photo, there is a photo of ‘Amr Diab’, a Middle Eastern artist. The ‘Spotify Arabia’ has also posted a similar picture from another angle. Also, the posted photo has a Twitter ID (‘IND_CYBORG’) on it, which belongs to a user with the name ‘ALLU’. He describes himself as ‘Sketch and Digital Artist’ and a lot of edited photos can be seen on his profile. So, the posted image is also an edited photo.
While the above two photos are fake, ‘ANI’ has reported that a billboard at the New York Times Square has displayed the photo of Lord Ram and a 3D visualization of Ayodhya Ram Temple. The actual photo can be seen below.
To sum it up, some of the photos shared as Lord Ram on the billboards at New York Times Square are edited and not real.
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