Foreign Affairs

FACT CHECK: Does This Image Show A Real National Geographic Cover About The Indian Farmers’ Protests?

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An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a National Geographic magazine cover that features an Indian farmer wearing a green turban.

Facebook/Screenshot

Verdict: False

A spokesperson for National Geographic confirmed it is not an authentic cover. The Instagram user who originally posted the fake cover described it as an “imagined cover for artistic expression only.”

Fact Check:

India has seen months-long protests by farmers over new agricultural laws that they believe will be harmful to their livelihoods, according to The New York Times.

In recent days, social media users have shared an image of an alleged National Geographic magazine cover featuring a man in a green turban and highlighting the Indian farmers’ demonstrations. The purported cover, which bears National Geographic’s signature yellow border and the date “Winter 2020,” includes text that says the “largest protest in history is happening now and it is not being televised.”

The cover in the Facebook post does not appear in National Geographic’s archive of its published magazines. National Geographic magazine covers typically display the month and year of the issue’s publication. Caitlin Holbrook, a spokesperson for the magazine, confirmed via email to the Daily Caller News Foundation that the cover “is indeed fake.”

The handle @anoopreet can be seen in the bottom right-hand corner of the fake cover. The Instagram account @anoopreet posted the fabricated cover on Jan. 3 with the caption disclaiming that it is an “imagined cover for artistic expression only” and crediting the portrait to PTI photojournalist Ravi Choudhary.

Choudhary posted the portrait of the man on his Instagram on Dec. 27, 2020. It also appears in a photo gallery on The Quint, where it is credited to him and captioned, “A farmer at Singhu border during their ‘Dehli Chalo’ protest against the new farm laws, on Saturday, 12 December.”

India’s supreme court on Tuesday suspended the implementation of the three agricultural laws at the center of the farmers’ protests until further notice, CNN reported. Despite the court order, farming unions said they would continue demonstrations, according to The Guardian.