Information usually spreads like wildfire on social media without the authenticity of it being true. Recently, a post has been going viral on socia media claiming that now a GST of 18 per cent will be charged on sending Good Morning texts. The viral post also informed the rule will be applicable from April and it will have to be paid along with the mobile bill. India TV Fact Check team investigated to confirm the authenticity of the news and found that it is a satirical news published in a Hindi newspaper in 2018, cuttings of which are being shared on the internet.
What is going viral?
A user named DC Upadhyay shared a post on Facebook on March 16 with the caption, "Stop good morning messages!" The newspaper cutting seen in this post read, "If you also send good morning messages to your friends, relatives and acquaintances, then be cautious. This is going to be heavy on your pocket in the new financial year. From April 1, the government will impose tax on the good morning messages sent. It will be collected as Good Morning Tax on the lines of GST. According to Lekh Pal, Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Mobile Communications, whatever good morning message you send. , WhatsApp Messenger will keep track of it. 18 percent GST has been fixed on such messages." Some more things are written in detail in the newspaper cutting.
The viral Facebook post
India TV conducts Fact Check
When our team came across this news, they read the newspaper cutting carefully. On closer inspection of the article, our attention went to a red strip below the newspaper cutting. It read, "Bura Na Mano Holi Hai". After this, when we searched the keyword on Google, we found a news on the website of ABP News published on March 20, 2018. In this, the truth was told about this newspaper cutting.
The news article found on ABP website
The headline of the news of ABP News read - 'The viral truth of the news claiming that 18% GST will be imposed on Good Morning message.' It has been told that this was the first news published on the front page of the edition of Navbharat Times newspaper published from Delhi on March 2, 2018. This news was published in a satirical form on March 2, 2018, on the day of Holi, along the lines of 'Bura Na Maano Holi Hai', which went viral in no time.
What is the conclusion?
India TV's fact check revealed that the viral news is a cutting of a satire published in a newspaper six years ago. It is being shared considering it to be true.
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