A fake Twitter Handle targeting Harsha De Silva claims he criticized Aragalaya and Sajith!
There have been mixed reactions regarding the recent anti-government protest held on 2nd November in Colombo. SJB also participated in this protest and some social media posts and mainstream media reported that the opposition leader Sajith, was hooted and chased away by the protestors. Within this background, a few screenshots of Tweets are being circulated, […]
There have been mixed reactions regarding the recent anti-government protest held on 2nd November in Colombo. SJB also participated in this protest and some social media posts and mainstream media reported that the opposition leader Sajith, was hooted and chased away by the protestors.
Within this background, a few screenshots of Tweets are being circulated, purported to be from Dr.Harsha De Silva, a current parliamentarian representing the Samagi Jana Balawegaya(SJB) Party, under the leadership of Sajith Premadasa.
Social Media Posts
Below are a couple of such purported Tweets targetting Dr.Harsha De Silva
“I don’t know why, but my 348,154 twitter followers didn’t turn up at the #hukki #huki#hoo Aragalaya today. I suspect @elonmusk has teamed up with @RW_UNP to sabotage our beautiful protest.So, I came home early.”
“I told our stupid leader @sajithpremadasa not to go with his STF security. Look what happened. The aragala idiots got angry and started hooting at us. Finally it was Hukki# #Hukki #Hoo SAJITH SAJITH SAJITH SAJITH.What a disgrace.”
Fact Check
We checked the official Twitter handle (@HarshadeSilvaMP) as well as the Twitter archives of Dr. Harsha De Silva and did not find any Tweets as claimed above.
However, Dr. Harsha condemned the fake Twitter handle, which was impersonating him. Dr. Harsha said, “This is a fake @Twitter account. My name is not DA Silva…” and also added that “The unprovoked attack by still my friend @fernandoharin accusing me of an urge to tweet a confrontation with #SriLanka police is going far”.
We also noticed that the viral Tweets had mentioned a handle called “@HarshaDaSilvaMP,” whereas the original verified handle of Dr. Harsha was “@HarshadeSilvaMP.”
The fake Twitter handle impersonating Dr. Harsha De Silva (@HarshaDaSilvaMP) was not either removed or deactivated; hence, it wasn’t active during our investigation.
Below is an instance of Dr. Harsha replying to some of the comments made by Minister Harin Fernando, which could have instigated this targeted Twitter campaign.
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Conclusion
Our investigation revealed that the screenshots of the tweets trying to convince that Dr.Harsha had criticized Aragalaya and Sajith Premadasa, belonged to a fake account, which was not active at the time of our investigation.
The official verified Twitter handle of Dr. Harsha De Silva had not tweeted any such messages, and Dr. Harsha also condemned the tweets which were impersonating him.
Title:Fake Twitter Handle targeting Harsha De Silva claims he criticized Aragalaya and Sajith!
Fact Check By: Kalana KrishanthaResult: False
