Japan Fact-Checks, August 14: Modi’s Twitter and Faxes in Japan

Fact-Checks at a Glance

We picked up the following fact-checks from overseas media.

1. False: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Follows a Japanese Woman on Twitter (India; fact-checked by NewsMeter on August 9, 2020)

Explanation: Information appeared claiming that the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, follows the Twitter account of a random Japanese woman. However, it turns out that the account followed by the prime minister does not belong to the woman in the image but to Diptarup Chakraborti, a person of some standing working in an Indian IT company. Chakraborti claims his account had been hacked and his profile edited to appear as if it belonged to a random Japanese woman. Thus, the claim that Modi follows the woman’s Twitter account is false. Read the full article here (English).

2. False: Tokyo infection figures can’t exceed 300 people per day due to the use of fax machines (Japan; fact-checked by InFact on August 12, 2020)

Explanation: There were widespread reports on Chinese social media that the number of new infections per day in Tokyo was limited to 300 due to the use of fax machines. However, the news program cited as a source of this information only reported the problem of the usage of fax machines in collecting patient information, which is time-consuming and difficult; there was no mention of a limit in ability to process infection figures, though. This information was deemed as incorrect as well because the number of cases in Tokyo have, at times, already exceeded 300. Read the full article here (English).

Announcements and News

• Check out the IFCN’s #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance database of over 5,000 fact-checks from more than 70 countries on the novel coronavirus. Other themes subject to fact-checking can be found on each organization’s website.
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(Originally published in English by FactCheck Initiative Japan; edited by Nippon.com.)