Fact Check: Shah Rukh Khan did not say ‘Rahul Gandhi will be next PM’ on X, viral post is fake

No such post was found on the actor's X profile and an analysis of his account’s activity log on a social media analytics website found that no post was deleted recently.

Source: PTI Fact Check

New Delhi (Anushka Pandey/Abhinav Gupta PTI Fact Check): A screenshot of a purported X post by actor Shah Rukh Khan was shared by many social media users. “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be the next prime minister of India,” the post stated. In its investigation, the PTI Fact Check Desk found that the screenshot shared on social media was fake. The actor has not published anything recently on the Congress leader.

Claim

An Instagram user shared a screenshot of a purported X post by Shah Rukh Khan on 25 May, which claimed that Rahul Gandhi will be India’s next prime minister.

The caption of the post read, “अबतो शाहरुख खान ने भी कह दिया, राहुल गांधी ही प्रधानमंत्री बनेंगे…” (Now even Shah Rukh Khan has declared, Rahul Gandhi will become prime minister).

Here is the link to the post, an archive link and below is a screenshot of the same:

Investigation

The PTI Fact Check Desk scanned social media platforms and found that several other users had shared the same screenshot with a similar claim.

Here is the lin, the archive link to one such post, and a screenshot of the same:

The screenshot was widely shared on YouTube as well. Three such videos can be found here, here and here and their archive versions can be viewed here, here and here, respectively.

The Desk then conducted a customised keyword search on Google, but could not find any report regarding any such social media post.

In the next part of investigation, the Desk scanned the official X handle of the actor but could not find any such post by him.

As can be seen in the screenshot above, Khan shared only two posts in the month of May. In the earlier post from 18 May, he had urged the people of Maharashtra to exercise their franchise and cast vote in the state in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls held on 20 May.

The Desk also checked the account’s activity log on Social Blade, a social media analytics website, and found that no post was deleted recently. Below is a screenshot showing the same:

Subsequently, the Desk concluded that a fake screenshot was shared on social media in the name of Shah Rukh Khan.

This story was originally published by PTI as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.