BJP IT head cell Amit Malviya to sue The Wire for 'tarnishing reputation'
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New Delhi, Oct 28: BJP leader and IT head cell Amit Malviya said he will file criminal and civil proceedings against news website The Wire over reports that the BJP leader had special privileges to take down Instagram posts.
“After consultation with my lawyers and seeking their advise, I have decided to file criminal and civil proceedings, against ‘The Wire.’ Not only will I be setting the criminal process in motion but I will also sue them in a civil court seeking damages as they forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish my reputation,” Amit Malviya said on Thursday.
Earlier, The Wire, founded by Siddarth Varadarajan, had alleged that Amit Malviya has been given access by Facebook’s parent company Meta to delete anti-BJP posts from Facebook and Instagram. After The Wire’s claims were refuted, they tried to fabricate evidence in the shape of forged emails, but when even those claims were revealed to be frauds, The Wire withdrew their reports.
Here is what actually happened.
1. The leftist News website The Wire, in a series of reports, had alleged that BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya had certain privileges to take down posts from Meta-owned Instagram.
2. These baseless reports soon sparked a controversy, questions were raised over its authenticity and against BJP leader. The news website initially stood by its report, with The Wire editor Siddharth Varadarajan stating that the "stories came from multiple Meta sources—whom we know, have met and verified."
3. However, Meta denied the such allegations made by The Wire. Meta's director for policy communications, Andy Stone, in a tweet said, "The posts in question were surfaced for review by automated systems, not humans. And the underlying documentation appears to be fabricated."
4. The Wire was later forced to retract the stories. The news portal apologised to only its "readers" for slippage in its editorial assessment. "This combination of not fully grasping the complexities of technology and a slippage in editorial assessment of tech-related matter resulted in the publication of stories which did not eventually hold up. For this we owe an apology to our readers," the news portal said. It did not apologise to BJP leader Amit Malviya.