Shashi Tharoor bats for fact-checking culture on social media after 'fake' video of Rahul Gandhi goes viral

Taking to Twitter, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor called out the ecosystem in which such a fact-check is necessary online

After a video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a nightclub with a woman went viral on social media, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor called for fact-checking culture on social media.

Many questions were raised about the identity of the woman seen with Rahul in the video, with some claiming that the woman accompanying the Congress party leader was Hou Yanqi, the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal.

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However, a fact-check report by India Today, stated that the claim that Rahul Gandhi was with a Chinese diplomat is fake.

Slamming 'blantant photoshops' that go viral on social media, and admitting that he, too, has been a victim to such rumours, Tharoor asked social media sites like Twitter and Facebook if they would consider linking fact-checks to every appearance or repetition of the fake news.