Piyush Goyal deletes fake photo of ‘illuminated’ roads after social media calls it out

The minister thanked social media for helping in ‘illuminating facts’.

Power minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday tweeted the government’s achievement of illuminating 50,000 km of Indian roads with LED lights. Except for one problem: the image used in the tweet was from Russia.

Piyush Goyal, minister of state for power, tweeted out an image from Russia while announcing the government’s achievement in retrofitting streetlights with LED. (PTI)

In the original tweet, which Goyal subsequently deleted, the minister announced that the government had illuminated 50,000 km of Indian roads by retrofitting streetlights with LED lights. The minister’s use of the wrong photo was first pointed out by SM Hoax Slayer, a site dedicated to debunking fake news.

Other Twitter users pointed out that this was not the first time an official account associated with the ruling party had put out wrong photos on social media.

Goyal later deleted his tweet and thanked people for pointing out the error, saying that social media helped “illuminate facts”.