Picture of Modi being 'taken around Paris in a taxi' is doctored

Published on February 24, 2025 at 08:17
3 min read
By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-hosted a global AI summit alongside French President Emmanuel Macron on February 10, social media posts shared a digitally altered image and falsely claimed Modi was "taken around" in a taxi during his stay in Paris. The original picture showed Modi stepping out of a car in Vatican City, where he met Pope Francis in October 2021.

"Hey French people, don't insult our world leader so much, you should not have taken him around in a taxi," reads a Hindi-language X post shared on February 12, 2025.

The post included an image of Modi stepping out of a car with a signage bearing the words "La prima App in Italia per i Taxi" seen below the licence plate.

"They took the world leader in a taxi", reads superimposed text on the image.

Screenshot of the false X post, captured on February 12, 2025

The post surfaced in the backdrop of Modi co-hosting the AI Action Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron on February 10 which aims to lay the groundwork for governing the nascent sector, as global powers race to play leading roles in the fast-developing technology (archived link).

The altered image was shared with similar claims elsewhere on Facebook and X.

Comments from users suggested they believed the claim.

"The kind of respect he commands, we must thank Macron that he wasn't hurled up on a two-wheeler," one user commented.

"Good that they know his real value," wrote another.

But the original image showed Modi's 2021 Vatican visit and it has been digitally altered to add the logo and name of an Italian taxi-service provider app.

A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found a longer video published on the verified YouTube account of AFP on October 30, 2021 (archived link).

The caption of the video says, "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Vatican to meet Pope Francis | AFP."

The car where Modi alighted from does not have a signage showing the name and logo of the taxi service app.

Screenshot comparison of image shared in false posts (left) and the AFP video (right)

Similar image was also posted on X by the Indian media outlet ANI on October 30, 2021 (archived link).

Part of the caption read: "PM Modi had a very warm meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The meeting was scheduled only for 20 minutes but went on for an hour."

The Indian prime minister arrived in Italy on October 29, 2021 to attend the G20 summit held between October 30 and 31(archived link). He met Pope Francis on October 30.

AFP previously debunked misinformation about Modi's co-hosting of the AI global summit with Macron here.

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