A video ridiculing former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has once again been making the rounds on social media circles, which we found to be an instance of an altered clip. Let’s look at the claim in detail.
Social media posts:
The video purportedly depicts a series of scenes in which it is claimed that the former president calls himself the most foolish member of his family. The video is presented below.
Another instance of the same video has been posted, which is here, pointed here and located here
Some people, assuming that this video was true, responded in this way.
Fact Check:
We first examined keyframes of the viral clip to find out the original scenes relating to the incident.
Accordingly, our attention was drawn to the original video, which shows former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa delivering a political speech in September 2019, in which he stated, “They have told the Muslim community that I’m evil, I’m the most innocent person in our house.”
It refers to a statement made by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in which he said, “I am the most innocent person in our family.”
The video is provided below.
A further example of the same unedited original video has been published can be seen here, is available here, and here as well.
Here is a comparison between the original video and the edited version.
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Conclusion:
Our investigation indicates that the video circulating on social media, which purports to show former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa describing himself as “the stupidest person in his family,” is an edited version. The original footage shows him stating, “I am the most innocent person in our family.”
Title: A fabricated video falsely claims that Former President Gotabaya referred to him as the “most foolish member of the family.”
Fact Check By: Pavithra Sandamali
Result: False
