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The curious case of @ians_india repeatedly falling for social media content that is very obviously fake. Thread 1/n 
âSplendra of Kasmirâ was a hint enough for everyone to figure out that this is not the handle of Sachin Pilotâs wife who hails from Kashmir. But not for IANS. 2/n
Forget a hint, last year, even though a handle clearly stated âparodyâ in its bio, IANS fell for it. This is after everyone knows that Rajan is not on twitter. 3/n https://www.altnews.in/ians-falls-for-parody-account-of-raghuram-rajan-several-media-outlets-follow-suit/
Before that it fell for a parody handle of Biplab Deb. Common sense says that when a handle without a blue tick tweets as a chief minister, it should raise a red flag. 4/n https://www.altnews.in/led-by-ians-media-outlets-fall-for-a-parody-account-of-tripura-cm-biplab-deb/
Thatâs not all. Just last week IANS fell for a fake account of Sushant Singh Rajputâs father. Creating fake accounts in the name of people in the news is a common trick. Only the most gullible fall for it repeatedly. 5/n http://www.altnews.in/ians-media-outlets-fall-for-fake-twitter-account-of-sushant-singh-rajputs-father/
Not just fake handles, IANS has also fallen for fake news and circulated old pics claiming Pankaja Munde wept inconsolably in public after losing the election. 6/n https://www.altnews.in/ians-ndtv-use-old-photo-to-claim-bjps-pankaja-munde-wept-after-electoral-loss-delete-later/
IANS also fell for a cross border satire site and published as news that Imran Khan read Covid chart upside down and claimed the curve is flattening. The site had Satire written in bold! 7/n http://www.altnews.in/ians-falls-for-satire-on-pakistani-pm-imran-khan-reading-covid-19-chart-upside-down/
IANS was also the one that fell for the most hilarious story about a week-long uncontrollable sex run of Irish sheep after consuming viagra. This is after the satire website had a clear disclaimer stating it is a site âwhere facts donât matterâ 8/n https://www.altnews.in/crazy-sex-run-by-irish-sheep-after-consuming-viagra-indian-media-falls-for-satire/
Not all of it is harmless and funny. IANS was also among those who provided fodder to vile propaganda that falsely claimed that the movie Chhapaak portrayed the Muslim culprit as a Hindu. 9/n https://www.altnews.in/does-chhapaak-portray-acid-attack-convict-as-a-hindu-named-rajesh-no-false-claim/
Fake content gets amplified when a news agency falls for it as multiple media outlets end up auto-publishing the misinformation without any cross verification. Hope @ians_india will pull its socks up so that this can be the last tweet of this thread
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