Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attend a Townhall meeting, at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on September 27, 2015. (AFP / Susana Bates)

Facebook India policy chief cutting tricolour cake? No, it's an Indian diplomat

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 3, 2020 at 11:30
2 min read
By AFP India

A composite image of two photos of a saree-clad woman cutting a cake decorated in the colours of the Indian flag has been shared hundreds of times in multiple Facebook and Twitter posts that claim that it shows a Facebook executive in India dishonouring the flag. The claim is false; the photo actually shows an Indian diplomat in Belarus celebrating India’s Independence Day on August 15, 2020.

The image was published on Facebook here on August 25, 2020.

Screenshot of misleading Facebook post

A post’s Hindi caption translates to English as: “The country will not tolerate such disrespect. Facebook’s Ankhi Das made tri-colour cake and cut that. The media would have made it such a big issue if a Muslim would have done this.”

Ankhi Das is Facebook’s public policy head for India, South and Central Asia. Das recently made headlines after the Wall Street Journal reported she allegedly pursued policies that were favourable to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2014 general election.

The photos were also shared alongside the same claim on Facebook here, here, here and here; and on Twitter here, here, here and here.

However, the claim is false.

Reverse image and keyword searches on Google found that the photos in fact show the Indian Ambassador to Belarus, Sangeeta Bahadur, cutting a cake in celebration of India’s Independence Day on August 15, 2020.

Bahadur posted photos of the ceremony at the Indian Embassy in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on her Facebook page here.

The photos show an identical cake, the same flag-lined backdrop and Bahadur wearing the same saree.

Below is a screenshot comparison showing the similarities in the photos in the misleading Facebook post (L) and Bahadur’s Facebook photos (R):

Image comparing screenshot

The Indian Embassy in Minsk also published matching photos and videos from the ceremony on Facebook here and on Twitter here.

An archived version of Bahadur's Facebook post also shows that it originally included three more photos of her cutting the cake. Below is a screenshot of the photos seen in the archived link:

Screenshot of archived Facebook post

The photos appear to have been removed after social media users -- for example on Twitter here and here -- began accusing Bahadur of disrespecting the Indian flag.

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