Mohammad Babar Azam is a Pakistani cricketer and the captain of the Pakistan national cricket team in all formats. And he has been trending across all social media platforms and grabbing headlines across leading news channels, but for all the wrong reasons. All because a parody Twitter account posted a made-up tweet just for fun. Here’s the tea.
There’s a Twitter account named Dr Nimo Yadav which has Nirav Modi’s picture set as the DP. Right in the bio for the account, it’s mentioned “parody account”. The person operating this account purchased a blue tick recently for $8.
Now, this account keeps on posting random things for fun, like memes and satire.
A few days ago, they posted a tweet where they claimed that Babar Azam is ‘sexting’ with another Pakistani cricketer’s girlfriend and apparently has told her that if she stops ‘sexting’ with him, he’ll make sure her boyfriend is out of the team. This was a made-up tweet.
His tweet went viral and then hell broke loose. Leading news channels like NDTV, Hindustan Times, News18, Aaj Tak and Fox News started publishing articles claiming that Babar Azam is manipulating a co-player’s girlfriend into ‘sexting’ with him.
Heated debates began to get broadcasted on television with serious headlines, all based on a fake tweet by a parody account.
@niiravmodi NDTV ne bhi report kar diya 😭😭😭😭https://t.co/jd15tr8zDf
— Rustic Nagrik (@BiryaniDumPeHai) January 17, 2023
Love for Fox News for giving me due credits, more power to you pic.twitter.com/hjigBV1qdq
— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) January 17, 2023
Hadd hai yaar https://t.co/aBFECEUh04
— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) January 17, 2023
The news channels didn’t even verify the news. In fact, the parody account was publicly claiming that the tweet is made up and not true and welcomed journalists to verify the news, but to no avail.
Delete this tweet, “bf in team for sexting” story is false, I did this in a satirical way.
— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) January 17, 2023
Bhai maine toh apni tweet delete kar di.
Fox News, aajtak, ndtv, HT times, Abp, News 18 aur local news papers etc etc tum log apna apna dekh lo
— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) January 17, 2023
Mirror Now did a full-fledged show about Babar Azam.
What a clown 🤡 media we have, mirror now telecasted a dedicated show based on my satirical tweet and put nasty allegations on Babar Azam without even verifying the source of the news (me).@MirrorNow I was the one who started bf in team story, this was fake. Apologise to Babar pic.twitter.com/OKMgD7fo4L
— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) January 17, 2023
Have never seen such a fool journalist, this is a pathetic campaign Indian media is running against Babar without any evidence pic.twitter.com/8r7TjYAGWZ
— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) January 17, 2023
Since there were a lot of people slamming the Twitter account for spreading fake news, the user later tweeted that it’s not their fault that journalists picked up the story and didn’t even verify it. They use Twitter to have some fun and so they did. This is also a valid justification, IMO.
On a serious note, to all who are saying you should not have done this
Don’t enjoy when I do this to people or party you don’t like
Second I don’t go to anyone here to RT or like my tweet in DM
Third it’s not my job Media is picking what news
Fourth I use twitter for my fun
— Dr Nimo Yadav (@niiravmodi) January 17, 2023
Several people online slammed Indian media for not doing basic research and verification before running such a serious story. Some also highlighted that not everything shown on mainstream news channels is true.
A single tweet from Dr. Nimo Yadav was enough to expose how our media works & executes. Too good man @niiravmodi
— Pracool (@thehighmonk) January 17, 2023
So called journalist @shreyadhoundial and foolish Indian, Australia & Pak Media running news based on a parody account who himself has claimed it as a joke. Earlier sources were hidden, now doesn’t matter.
Journalism has gone so low 😔😔#IndianMedia #PakMedia #FoxNews #AusMedia https://t.co/Th6b61gCL9— Eye On Cricket (@Eye_On_Cricket) January 18, 2023
wtf, no tv channel in even pakistan has reported this news then who tf are you to assume what's the actual truth, they just wanted easy views and money by having babar azams name on their channel. this is just a crime against journalism. https://t.co/U8RNexnS4V
— عثمان 💚 (@usmipct56) January 17, 2023
This guy admitted its a fake story and he did it for likes. Shame on fox cricket for posting without any verification. https://t.co/1HJaSk8OqE
— Mehreen (@talesofem) January 17, 2023
How?? 😂😂 even after seeing its parody account, they based their whole show on one tweet without even verifying or anything 😂😂 shameful!
— 🤷🏻♀️ (@sab_changaa) January 17, 2023
Give them anything related to “pakistan” and watch them dance 😭😭
— Chirag Barjatya (@chiragbarjatyaa) January 17, 2023
This should be a good example of how you can hardly ever trust mainstream news channels in India https://t.co/rNpocPVen6
— M M Sayed (@Badastoor_) January 17, 2023
Such a sad state of affairs. *sigh*