A screenshot of a purported tweet of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is being shared on social media, in which she allegedly posted a picture of PM Modi along with a caption that reads, “Cancelled my trip to Maldives. Will prefer Lakshadweep or Andaman instead. #ExploreIndianlslands.” This screenshot is doing the rounds on the internet amid the India-Maldives row. This article aims to fact-check this claim.
Claim: On 7 January 2024, PM of Italy Giorgia Meloni tweeted announcing her cancelled trip to the Maldives in support of the Indian Islands.
Fact: Italy PM Giorgio Meloni did not post the purported tweet on her ‘X’ handle on 7 January 2024. There are no reports about her voicing support for the Indian islands. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To check the veracity of the viral photo, we first carefully went through the timeline of Italian PM Meloni’s ‘X’ handle. But, we could not find such a tweet posted on 7 January 2024.
Social Blade, an online tool that monitors posts, including deleted ones, on a particular social media account, shows that she made one tweet on 7 January 2024, but it’s not about the Indian islands but about Italy’s flag.
Further, performing an advanced search on ‘X’ has not yielded any credible information that could link her to the content of the viral post. Additionally, we checked on Meloni’s other social media accounts to see if she had voiced her opinion on the India-Maldives row supporting the Indian Islands, but we could not find any. If the prime minister of a country makes such statements, the media would generally report on it, but there are no such news reports of Meloni supporting Indian islands. All of this evidence makes it clear that the viral screenshot of her tweet is a digital creation.
To sum up, an edited graphic is viral as a screenshot of Italian PM Meloni’s tweet supporting the Indian Islands.
