Claim: A video shows former US president Barack Obama, unveiling a large portrait of the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former prime minister Imran Khan, at a ceremony.
Fact: The portrait of Imran Khan has been edited into the video. The video is actually from the United States presidential portrait unveiling ceremony, held at Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery on 12 February 2018, where Obama revealed a portrait of himself alongside its artist, Kehinde Wiley.
Fact or Fiction?
It is tradition in the United States for presidents to have an official portrait of them made during their time in office. These portraits are displayed at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.
Former president Barack Obama chose artist Kehinde Wiley — a painter of African American descent — to paint his presidential portrait.
The clip of Obama and Wiley was widely shared back in the day. However, it has recently resurfaced as a viral meme format where social media users replace Obama’s image with a different picture — or even a photo of themselves. For example, a reverse-image search of the video found several edits of the same video where the image has been replaced with other people.
The video in question, however, is not just a fan-edit. The accompanying text with the video attempts to convince users that it is real, and states: “پاکستانی سیاستدانوں کی دس نسلیں زور لگالیں تو یہ عزت و توقیر حاصل نہیں کر سکتی جو عمران خان نے جیل میں رہ کر عزت کمائی شئیر فار خان” [Translation: Ten generations of Pakistani politicians cannot get the respect that Imran Khan earned by staying in jail. Share for Khan]”
The fake video includes the TikTok logo and username @worldcup.500. When Soch Fact Check searched for the post on TikTok, it could not be found as the account now seems to be deleted. However, the video was reposted by a pro-PTI account called “Insaf Madia” (now renamed to “Pti Maheena”) with 124k followers.
While the text in the claim alleges that Obama revealed the portrait of Imran Khan while the PTI leader was in jail, the video is, in fact, from February 2018. A simple reverse-image search of the clip in the claim led to a live-stream of the actual unveiling ceremony. The video’s original version begins at the 22:47 mark, and runs until the 23:07 mark of the clip.
Virality
While the original source of the TikTok edit could not be found, the fake video was posted on TikTok here and Facebook here. It was also widely shared on Whatsapp, earning it the “forwarded many times” text.
Conclusion: A post claiming to show a video of President Obama unveiling a portrait of Imran Khan is false as the image of the PTI leader has been edited into the clip. The original video, in fact, shows Obama unveiling a presidential portrait of himself and dates back to 2018.