A thank-you video sent three years early.
The performance was real. Its supposed reason had not happened yet.
Original editorial illustration. Not an image of the event.
THE CLAIM
A video showed Americans singing India's anthem to thank India for supplying medicine during the 2020 pandemic.
Summary of the documented claim, not a verbatim quotation.Misleading context: the video was produced in 2017.
Back on planet Earth.
AFP traced the performance to creator Anisha Dixit's YouTube upload dated 12 August 2017. Its description connected the recording to India's Independence Day and a celebration of diversity. The same production also appeared on her Facebook page in August 2017.
The 2020 caption attached a new diplomatic explanation to an older cultural video. Nothing about the genuine performance makes that later explanation true. The upload date is the decisive receipt: a film already online in 2017 cannot have been created in response to an event in 2020. This finding concerns the video's provenance, not the effectiveness of any medicine.
An impressive thank-you note, especially considering the three-year head start.
BAKWAAS-O-METER™
Our editorial reaction to the claim, not its subject. The factual finding above is separate from the joke. How to read the meter →
They did it. Here are the receipts.
Check the linked record and its surrounding context. Original records and independent reporting are labelled separately. External links open in a new tab.
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AFP · original upload and date comparison
READ THE SOURCE REPORT →
The source reports document the original claim and supporting material. We have not independently authenticated every embedded original; follow the provenance in the linked investigation.
Found a hole in our homework?
Identify the disputed statement, explain the problem and send evidence. Credible challenges are reviewed; substantive corrections are dated here. A challenge does not automatically remove a report. Our corrections approach →
CHALLENGE THIS REPORT →Dates & correction history
Prepared 28 October 2026. No corrections recorded in this edition.