How Imran Khan, Robert Vadra mixed up identities on social media

Imran Khan was trolled for mixing up Rabindranath Tagore and Khalil Gibran, but it was far from the first time such a mix-up has happened on social media. Here are a few more instances.

Robert Vadra
During election season earlier this year, the inked finger selfie had become quite the rage everywhere. And businessman Robert Vadra put one up himself, with a few motivational lines accompanying it, urging people to go out and vote. “Our right, our strength! Everyone must step out and vote. We need all the support to create a combined future for our loved ones, and for a secular, safe, productive future for our country,” he wrote. He also added a flag emoji. The Paraguayan flag. But at least Vadra, after being schooled on his mistake, deleted the post and put a new one up with the right emoji.




Naeem ul-Haque
With Imran Khan leading the way, how can his aides be left behind? Naeem ul-Haque, special assistant to the Pakistan Prime Minister, put up a picture of who he thought was Imran Khan circa 1969. It was a post with absolutely no context or relevance. Or, as it eventually turned out, truth. The photo was actually of a young Sachin Tendulkar, from 1988. This picture was clicked during a Ranji Trophy match when the 15-year-old scored his maiden first class century. And just like Imran Khan, Naeem too hasn’t taken down his post, four days after putting it up.



Imran Khan
The Pakistan PM was only seeking to post an inspirational message on Twitter. Honest intentions, however, can only take you so far, unless accompanied by robust fact-checking. “I slept and dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy,” he wrote, and urged people to understand the “wisdom of Gibran’s words”. Within minutes, Twitter users pounced on the opportunity to correct Khan’s error, and point out that it was Tagore who wrote the couplet. One doubts, however, if Khan reads responses to his tweets. In the week since the mix-up, he’s yet to take down his tweet.



Donald Trump
He’d truly be world champion if mix-ups were to be a contest. Since it’s not possible to list each of Trump’s gaffes, here are just the latest ones. Last week, he tried to threaten Ayatollah Khomeini and his office with sanctions. Except Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s revolutionary leader, died in 1989.

Earlier this year, Trump wanted to refer to Apple CEO Tim Cook, and tried to save precious time by just saying ‘Tim Apple’. And what of the time when he met England’s Prince Charles, known as the ‘Prince of Wales’, and called him ‘Prince of Whales’? As one Twitter user pointed out helpfully, maybe Trump meant it “on porpoise”.

Gisborne Herald
In November last year, legendary cartoonist Stan Lee breathed his last. And as media outlets published his obituaries, one New Zealand-based publication put up a tribute. Except it called him “Spike Lee”. And after many people pulled up the paper and trolled it on social media, Spike Lee, filmmaker who gave hits like 'Malcolm X' and 'BlacKkKlansman', also noticed it and announced that contrary to the paper’s beliefs, he was alive. As Mark Twain once quipped, “reports of his death were greatly exaggerated”, it’s something Spike Lee too could have said.