Fact-Check: Screenshot of Reader’s Comment falsely shared as Excerpt of Washington Post’s Article on Chandrayaan3

India has scripted history on August 23, 2023, when Chandrayann 3 successfully landed on the Moon’s south pole, an area that had never been explored before. India has been appreciated globally for the achievement of this significant milestone. Amid this, a screenshot of a reader’s comment is falsely shared on social media platforms as an excerpt of an article published by the USA’s Washington Post on Chandrayaan 3.

Sharing a Screenshot on Twitter (X), a user by the name of Ramakant Singh says: “Look what The Washington Post has to say on Chandrayaan 3 success? Surprisingly Wonderful”

Another user named Jay posted the same screenshot with the caption: “Washington Post wrote about Chandrayaan 3”.

The text of the screenshot highlights and evaluates the academic background of Engineers employed in the project of Chandrayaan 3 while claiming that the Mission Director of the Project hails from a rural place, and has no idea about engineering.

Fact-Check

The DFRAC team conducted a reverse-image search of the viral screenshot which led us to an article published by the Washington Post on Chandrayaan3’s Success with the headline: “India’s lunar landing leaves a nation enthralled and briefly unified”.

Washington Post’s article on Chandrayaan 3, highlights India’s challenges and struggles during the third moon mission. It briefly praises India’s efforts over the success of Chandrayaan3. However, the article didn’t mention anything about the Engineers behind Chandrayaan3’s success.

Following this, we went through the comment section of this article and found the name mentioned in the viral screenshot along with the same text. It simply indicates that it’s the reader’s comment on the Washington Post’s article.

Conclusion

DFRAC’s Fact-Check proves that the viral screenshot is a reader’s comment on the Washington Post’s article. Moreover, the Washington Post has not stated anything, regarding the background of engineers employed during the mission of Chandrayaan 3, in its article. Therefore, the claim of social media users is false.