Fact Check: Maharashtra govt has banned the penguin emoji?

A screenshot of a tweet from a Twitter handle named ANI is being circulated on social media that the Maharashtra government has banned the penguin emoji. 

Giving breaking news updates in this tweet, it is reported that the Uddhav government has banned the emoji of penguins. Sharing this screenshot on social media, users are asking whether the government is left with only this work?

BREAKING: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackrey gave order to ban penguin emojis in Maharashtra. pic.twitter.com/dqZfH4XvMm

— ANI (@aniparodyy) August 10, 2020

The Penguin emoji is being used for the Sushant case with Aditya Thackeray. This is the reason that a large number of users are sharing this claim as true on social media. Also on July 1, the hashtag BabyPenguin was trending on Twitter, after a complaint was registered against a social media user calling Aaditya Thackeray a Baby Penguin.

Seems #UdhavThackeray imposed emergency in Maharashtra. Fundamentals rights of citizens are being muzzled.

Ban on penguin emoji - hilarious
Ban on criticism of govt - Unfortunate
Ban on media/SM and arrest of some people - Isn't it fascism ?

What's going on in Maharashtra?

— Arvind Vishwakarma 🇮🇳 (@ArvindVishwak10) August 10, 2020

Fact check investigation:

The Twitter handle named ANI has tweeted the news of emoji ban. His user name is – @aniparodyy. While the official Twitter handle of ANI is the user name @ANI. Apparently the handle that has been tweeted is fake.

Government of Maharashtra has not banned the penguin emoji. The tweet associated with the claim is from a fake Twitter handle named ANI.