This TIME magazine cover page featuring PM Modi with 'Delete ‘Fascism’ icon is a morphed image - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 12, 2021
A purported image of a ‘TIME’ magazine cover page featuring PM Narendra Modi with an illustration of ‘Delete ‘Fascism?’ icon is being shared on social media claiming that the ‘TIME’ magazine had described PM Narendra Modi as a Fascist on its new magazine cover page. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Image of ‘TIME’ magazine’s new cover page that features PM Narendra Modi with a “Delete ‘Fascism?” icon.
Fact: The photo shared in the post is a morphed one. The original ‘TIME’ magazine cover page had featured Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s photo with a “Delete Facebook?” icon. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On observing the photo carefully, we could see the date ‘Oct. 25/Nov. 1, 2021’ on the ‘TIME’ cover page. When we searched for this ‘TIME’ magazine cover page using these details, we found the original version of this cover page on the ‘TIME’ official Twitter handle. The original ‘TIME’ magazine cover page featured Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a mobile deletion icon. This illustrated mobile deletion icon has “Delete ‘Facebook?” written on it by providing two options ‘Cancel’ or ‘Delete’. Sharing the original magazine cover page photo, the ‘TIME’ website published an article on 07 October 2021.
How Facebook forced a reckoning by shutting down the team that put people ahead of profits https://t.co/xm1uu7SCfl
Also, when we compare both cover pages, we could see that the articles and the author names mentioned on both cover pages are same. Billy Perrigo, one of the authors mentioned on these cover pages had tweeted the original Mark Zuckerberg version cover page on his Twitter handle.
Recently, Frances Haugen, a former product manager with Facebook’s civic misinformation team, accused Facebook management of prioritizing profits over the public and children safety. Empathizing Haugen statements, ‘TIME’ published this article by extensively reporting on Facebook’s civic integrity team and pointing out how the social media giant’s decisions alienated many members of the critical team that fights misinformation and hate. Reporting the complete details of this ‘TIME’ magazine cover page, ‘NDTV’  published an article on 08 October 2021.
Earlier, when similar morphed images of ‘TIME’ magazine cover pages were shared on social media to degrade PM Modi, FACTLY published fact-check articles debunking those claims. They can be read here and here.
To sum it up, this ‘TIME’ magazine cover page featuring Narendra Modi photo with a “Delete ‘Fascism?” icon is a morphed image.