Fact test: not so funny! Imposter mimics Shyam Rangeela’s Twitter account to criticize Modi’s government

What is common between comedian Shyam Rangeela, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and actor Naseeruddin Shah? All three are all the latest victims of personification on Twitter Rangeela.

A Twitter account, @shyamrangela, who claims to be the official report of the comedian, constantly makes sarcastic comments on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his government and even Ram Ramir. One such tweet in Hindi translates to: ‘The maximum number of Nobel laureates are from Bengal, while most bank robbers are from Gujarat.’

A few other tweets posted from the account can be seen below.

India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the Twitter account “@shyamrangela” is a fraudulent account of the comedian. His original report is “@ShyamRangeela”.

The archived version of the fraudster account can be seen here. Many Twitter users accept that this is Rangeela’s original account.

A story of triple identities

Each Twitter account has a unique ID. Someone can change his Twitter handle, but the Twitter ID can not be changed. We found the Twitter ID of “@shyamrangela” using the TweetBeaver tool.

When we searched this number (1249510577971445762) on Yandex, we found that the same account earlier pretended the farmer leader Rakesh Tikait with the handle “@rakeshtikat”. As if that were not enough, before Tikait, the same bill may have been presented by Samajwadi party spokesperson Nidhi Yadav with the “@nidhiyadavsp” handle.

We were able to find the archived versions of the Twitter accounts “@rakeshtikat” and “@nidhiyadavsp”, both of which are not currently operational.

Interestingly, all three handles have almost similar bio-descriptions, with minor adjustments. In all three fraudulent handles, the place is also referred to as Lucknow. This indicates that all three handles may belong to the same person.

Let’s take a look at the three avatars of this Twitter account.

Avatar 1: Nidhi Yadav

Using Twitter’s advanced search, we found a tweet in which someone addressed the person managing the account ‘@shyamrangela’ as ‘nidhi ji’.

This reinforces the fact that the same account was previously active with the handle “@nidhiyadavsp”. The possibility exists that this report then attempted to personify Nidhi Yadav, spokesperson for the Samajwadi party. The bio section of this account also mentions ‘official account’ and the slogan ‘Jay Samajwad’.

Nidhi Yadav confirmed to AFWA that her only Twitter account “@ nidhiyadav26“, Which has been verified.

We also found an archived tweet posted by the now disabled Twitter handle “@nidhiyadavsp”. The tweet in Hindi translates to: “Let’s get acquainted today. Enter the name of your respective cities. I belong to the city of Nawabs. ”

It is clear that the person indicates that he is from Lucknow, which is widely known as the city of Nawabs. It is therefore possible that the person managing this account is from Lucknow. Nidhi Yadav is from Allahabad.

Avatar 2: Rakesh Tikait

We found a tweet in which a Twitter user hit the person using the handle “@shyamrangela” because he was running a fake account on Rakesh Tikait’s name. This tweet is probably from the time this account was active with the handle “@rakeshtikat”. The official Twitter handle of Rakesh Tikait is “@RakeshTikaitBKU“, Which has been verified.

It further confirms that this report, which currently pretends to be Shyam Rangeela, previously pretends to be the farmer leader Rakesh Tikait.

We found that this account regularly posted tweets related to the protest of the farmers in January this year and early February. The frequency of such tweets has dropped significantly since the end of February and the focus has shifted to the issue of unemployment as the handle has been changed to ‘@shyamrangela’.

Avatar 3: Shyam Rangeela

On February 25, Rangeela tweeted in Hindi: ‘I will not only tweet but also post a video in support of my siblings. I’m not saying that my video will get a job for you, but it will definitely convey a strong message to those responsible. #modi_rojgar_do #modi_job_do ”.

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– #modi_rojgar_do #modi_job_do

– Shyam Rangeela (@ShyamRangeela) 25 February 2021

Shortly afterwards, the fraudulent account “@shyamrangela” posted tweets related to the issue of unemployment with the same hashtags “#modi rojgar do” and “#modi job do”.

As mentioned in Rangeela’s verified Facebook page, his original Twitter account is “@ShyamRangeela”.

On February 23, Rangeela pointed out that some people had created fake Twitter accounts in his name. He also asked his followers to be careful with such reports.

,.
@shyamrangla,@ParodyHai ,

– Shyam Rangeela (@ShyamRangeela) 23 February 2021

It is therefore clear that the Twitter account “@shyamrangela” is a fraudulent report of the comedian Shyam Rangeela. Earlier, the account leader, Rakesh Tikait, and possibly also the spokesman of the Samajwadi party, Nidhi Yadav, put forward in the same report.