‘They literally…’ : Brazilian photographer deletes Instagram account after Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ allegations; know why

Rahul Gandhi shows the photo of Brazilian woman

Add DNA as a Preferred Source

General TRENDING NOW

Brazilian photographer Matheus Ferrero deleted his Instagram account following online harassment and unwanted attention due to one of his photos of a Brazilian model which went viral after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi alleged “vote chori” in the Haryana polls. The model became known among the Indian households.  

General All about the viral Brazilian photo 

Ferrero is a photographer from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, who had taken the photo of a woman in 2017 and shared it on one of the sites that contain stock of photographs. The photo, which was taken with her consent, was titled “Woman Wearing Blue Denim Jacket”. The photograph is freely available to view and download. Since Rahul Gandhi’s allegations, the photo has been downloaded more than four lakh times and greatly used by many publications. 

Surprisingly, the photograph became the centre of an election upheaval after Rahul Gandhi showed it to allege massive voter fraud, claiming it to be the face which featured on multiple voter IDs in Haryana. The incident made photographer Ferrero a big trend on social media handles in India, the country who was entirely unaware of him.  

General What led the photographer to delete his Insta ID? 

In an interview with the Brazilian news outlet Aos Fatos, he said that he deleted his Instagram account as the controversy became huge. “They literally hacked all my accounts. There were a lot of strange people saying all sorts of things,” he told the publication. He further said that many people “did not understand it was a free-use photo from a stock platform”. 

General Who is the Brazilian woman in Rahul Gandhi’s PC? 

According to the Brazilian news publication, the woman in the photo is a hairdresser who lives in Minas Gerais and was involved in a Ferraro’s photoshoot in March 2017. The woman denied association with the Indian elections and only volunteered for the shoot for his friend.  

Gandhi showed a picture of a woman during a press conference and said her image was used 22 times in Haryana’s voter list under different names like Saraswati, Sweety, and Seema. Hours later, the woman in the photo came forward online. She was identified through a reverse-image search as Larissa Nery, a Brazilian model. In a video, Larissa said the photo shown by Gandhi was taken when she was around 18–20 years old.

Find your daily dose of All Latest News including Sports News, Entertainment News, Lifestyle News, explainers & more. Stay updated, Stay informed- Follow DNA on WhatsApp.