Claim: A Twitter video claims that it shows a man breaking his TV after watching the winning moments of India during the T20 World Cup match against Pakistan.
Fact: The video and claim are false. The video is from a 2016 football match where a man smashed his TV after his girlfriend pranked him by turning the TV off during crucial moments of the game. The misleading post contains a clip from this video in which the cricket match clip is digitally manipulated onto the TV screen.
On 23 October 2022, former Indian Cricketer Virender Sehwag posted a video to his verified Twitter account. The post’s caption, translated to English, reads: “Relax neighbour, it’s only a game. It’s Diwali here, so crackers are bursting and you are breaking the TV for no reason. No man, what is the fault of TV?”
The 17-second video shows a man watching the final moments of Pakistan vs India T20 World Cup match. He then breaks the TV and shouts aggressively.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted an inVID video analysis of the clip, and found it was actually filmed in 2016. The Daily Mail UK published a report on 16 June 2016 with the headline, “Turkish football fan trashes house after his wife pranks him by repeatedly turning off the TV as he tries to watch EURO 2016 game”. The article includes screenshots of the clip and identifies the man as Izzet Salti, who was watching the Euro 2016 game between Turkey and Croatia. The article states, “the footage shows a stressed Izzet watching the match when his wife starts to ask him questions – causing him to suddenly lose his temper.”
Another news report by Express UK also features a longer version of the video in which the man could be seen watching a football match instead of cricket. In the extended version, the TV keeps turning off angering the man, who then smashes his TV and home appliances.
A fact-checker from India, Muhammad Zubair, also posted the original video on his verified Twitter account, showing that Sehwag’s claim is false.
The screen comparison between the original video and digitally manipulated one can be seen below:
Virality
An organic search on Facebook revealed that clips and images from the doctored video with the false claim has been shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here between 23 – 27 October 2022.
On Twitter, Sehwag’s tweet received 15,600 retweets, 1,1960 quote tweets and 1,26,800 likes. The false and doctored video was also retweeted by Parlimentarian and former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh on the same day.
Conclusion: The video of a man smashing his TV after watching the winning moments of India during the T20 World Cup match against Pakistan is false. The video is doctored and is actually from Euro 2016 football game between Turkey and Croatia.