Mia Khalifa falsely linked to ongoing wrestlers’ protests in India

By: Chandan Borgohain
May 3 2023

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Context
Several Indian wrestlers continue their protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and political leader Brijbhushan Sharan Singh for allegedly sexually harassing seven women wrestlers, including a minor. After days of protest by the agitating wrestlers at Jantar Mantar, the Delhi Police lodged two FIRs against Singh, who is a member of Parliament (MP) from the Bharatiya Janat Party (BJP), on April 28. However, the wrestlers have vowed to keep the protests alive until he is either sent to jail or the investigation is completed. Outgoing WFI president Singh on Sunday claimed that the protest against him is being driven by politicians.

Recently, BJP leader Janardan Mishra caused a social media storm after he tweeted a photo of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi with female wrestlers protesting against the WFI chief. On April 29, Mishra tweeted the photo of Gandhi with wrestlers with a caption in Hindi that said, “Why didn’t Mia Khalifa join the protest? After all, she’s also a wrestling champion, bro…!”

Following Mishra’s tweet, multiple claims linking former adult performer Mia Khalifa to the ongoing wrestler’s protest have been circulating on social media. One such claim shared on April 30 on Twitter shows a screenshot of a purported tweet by BBC Breaking News which states: “#Miakhalifa #india porn star Mia Khalifa tweeted in support of the ongoing wrestlers' agitation in India. In her post, Mia expressed severe shock over the sequence of events in Delhi.” The tweet has gained over 20K views and more than 700 likes. In another tweet by a proclaimed BJP supporter @AkkhaPandit, Mia Khalifa can be seen standing in a picture with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Chaudhary Jayant Singh and national spokesperson Bhupendar Chaudhary and protesting wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Bajrang Punia.

In Fact
We checked all the official Twitter profiles of BBC News, including @BBCBreaking, but did not find any tweet which says Mia Khalifa supported the ongoing wrestlers’ protest in India. No such report has been published on their website as well. We also checked Khalifa's Twitter profile but did not find any tweet by her in support of the ongoing wrestlers’ protest. We found no credible information on any credible news platform that supports the claim. Logically Facts also reached out to BBC for a comment, and was categorically told: "This is not a BBC tweet."

For the second claim, we performed a reverse image search and found a news article published on April 27 by the Hindi daily Amar Ujala. The report uses a photo that shows the protesting wrestlers with RLD leader Chaudhary Jayant Singh. A comparison of the image used by Amar Ujala with the viral photo shows that both images were captured at the same event, moments apart. However, the photograph in the news report doesn’t show Mia Khalifa in the background.

Further, we checked the official Twitter account of RLD, which carried several photos and videos from the day, and found no image that showed Khalifa present at the protest. We also looked into the Twitter profiles of some of the RLD leaders and found the original photograph in a tweet by RLD's Bhupender Chaudhary, on April 27. Comparing both photos, it is clear that Khalifa has been digitally inserted in the viral photo. We also found the exact image of Khalifa in the black outfit used to create the viral photo, uploaded on her Instagram account on October 4, 2019. We also noted that Bhupender Chaudhary has tweeted at the Delhi Police to take action against the @AkkhaPandit Twitter account for sharing the morphed image.

The Verdict
Mia Khalifa has not posted anything in support of the ongoing wrestlers’ protest in India and did not take part in the protest in Delhi either. Some social media users are using morphed images to link the former adult performer with the protest. Therefore, we mark these claims false.