• Source:JND
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Chandrayaan-3, the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) recent lunar mission, continues to make headlines for the soft-landing milestone on the moon's south pole. But it is also being used as a medium to trick users on Instagram. A number of fake accounts on the photo-sharing app that claim to be official accounts of the space agency and promise updates on Chandrayaan-3 were flagged by PIB Fact Check.

Taking to X (formerly called Twitter), the fact-checking arm of the Press Information Bureau, recently shared two Instagram accounts with six lakh+ followers (chandrayan_3) and 43,000 followers (isro.chandrayaan) that are fake and not associated with ISRO. It also shared the official accounts of Twitter and Instagram.

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"Did you come across any #Instagram accounts posting updates on #Chandrayaan3 & #ISRO? These accounts are not associated with the @isro," sharing the profile images of these accounts, @PIBFactCheck said. Among the reasons for the rise of these fake accounts is the recent success of Chandrayaan-3 mission.

Coming to more fake profiles, the X account of PIB Fact Check also highlighted bogus accounts in a post dated July 19, 2023. "Several #FAKE Instagram accounts are claiming to be the official account of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The official account of @isro on Instagram is 'isro.dos'. For authentic info, visit ISRO's official website: 'https://isro.gov.in'." the fact-checking arm added.

It flagged five Instagram accounts as fake:

- isroindiaoffical

- isro.chandrayaan

- isro.in

- indian_isro

- isro.gov.in

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ISRO Instagram and X Official Account

"The official account of ISRO on Instagram is 'isro(.)dos'," it added in the latest post. The official account of ISRO currently has 1,15,000+ followers. Coming to X, the official handle of the space agency has 6.7 million followers on Elon Musk's platform.

Speaking of more fact checks, PIB Fact Check also flagged a fake website that claimed to be the official website of MGNREGA. You can read more on this here.