Earlier this week, an Indian news outlet originally accused Meta giving an Indian politician special permission to remove posts on both Facebook and Instagram. This Sunday, they retracted the report after obtaining "certain discrepancies" were seen in the used evidences for the report.
This photograph taken on May 22, 2022 shows the logo of US multinational technology conglomerate Meta displayed on a booth ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos.FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
(Photo : FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)) This photograph taken on May 22, 2022 shows the logo of US multinational technology conglomerate Meta displayed on a booth ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos.
The Wire Retracts Accusation to Meta
The Wire retracted its report that accuses Meta of giving a politician special permissions to remove posts on its platforms. The Indian news released a statement that the decision for them to retract this report is because certain discrepancies were seen in the sources of the story.
They will also be reviewing previous reports of the same team under Meta coverage. Through this, they also aim to see the possibility of misinforming intentionally the outlet. "Our investigation, which is ongoing, does not as yet allow us to take a conclusive view about the authenticity and bona fides of the sources with whom a member of our reporting team says he has been in touch over an extended period of time," The Wire stated.
As per the news outlet, it is only right for them to retract the stories as the discrepancies include the inability of authenticating both the email sent from a*****@fb.com and the email that they received from Ujjwal Kumar, who denied sending it to The Wire.
False Allegations
The original report was published on October 6th and as per The Verge, it indicated that Instagram took down a satirical image of a man worshipping Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. @cringeactivist on Instagram has confirmed that the reason for the removal was because of its violation of "sexual and nudity" policies, despite not containing it.
The Wire stated in their report that an internal source from Meta told them that the removal of the post was granted as a request from the Head of the Information Technology Cell of Bharatiya Janata Party Amit Malviya. Several screenshots were posted as evidence.
Since then, Meta denied this as they released a statement after the article has been published. They accused the outlet of spreading fake news and hopes that The Wire is not the perpetrator but the victim in this situation. This continues to the Indian news outlet reviewing its reporting on Meta, which resulted in retracting their reports.
The Wire Ombudsperson Pamela Philipose stated, "Many of these sources either did not stand by what The Wire put out, or were misunderstood, or were wrongly quoted, or possibly had second thoughts. As they went public on distancing themselves from the investigation, it began to tilt alarmingly like a chair deprived of a couple of its legs."
TechCrunch reported that the news outlet is also working with security experts for this investigation and its top priority is to vouch for the sources and the materials that the outlet has provided as Devesh Kumar, one of the reporters in the team, has been initiated to take legal proceedings.
