Earlier this week, X (formerly Twitter) rolled out a new feature that displays the country an account is based in. Shortly after, social media users in Pakistan began sharing a purported screenshot of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s X account, claiming it showed that the account was being operated from India.
The claim is false.
On November 23, a user on X posted an alleged screenshot of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s account with the caption: “Elder Mian [Nawaz Sharif] turns out to be Modi’s friend as he is operating his X account from there [India].”
The screenshot appeared to show that Sharif’s account was based in India.
At the time of writing, the post had been viewed over 161,000 times, reposted more than 2,100 times and liked over 5,200 times.
Similar claims were also shared here and here.
The location listed on the former prime minister’s official X account is Pakistan, not India.
Geo Fact Check reviewed Sharif’s verified X account and found that under the section “Account based in” it states Pakistan, contrary to what is being alleged online.
A closer examination of the circulating screenshots reveals multiple inconsistencies that indicate they were fabricated. For instance, the handle in the screenshot appears as nawazsharifmns, whereas Sharif’s actual handle is NawazSharifMNS. Additionally, the phrase “former prime minister of Pakistan” is misspelt as “former mrimite of Pakistan.”
Verdict: The claim is false. The screenshot has been doctored to falsely show that Nawaz Sharif’s X account is based in India.
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