Amit Malviya alleges criminal conspiracy by 'The Wire'; to lodge FIR

BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya on Friday (October 28) accused news portal The Wire and some unknown persons of entering into a “criminal conspiracy” to tarnish his reputation and said he will approach police for registering an FIR on charges of forgery and cheating, among others.

Malviya spoke to the media a day after issuing a statement that he will pursue criminal and civil proceedings against the portal over stories, since retracted, that insinuated the BJP leader enjoyed the privilege on Meta platforms of having any post taken down that he believed was against the BJP’s interests.

Also read: Explained: 5 points in the very public spat between Meta and The Wire

Though the portal has apologised to readers and withdrawn the stories as questions, including from experts, mounted over their veracity, the BJP leader noted that it has refrained from apologising to him despite “maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career”.

“My role requires me to vociferously advocate the BJP’s point of view on national issues across platforms. This role is based on trust and camaraderie between me and my interlocutors across platforms and more importantly with the public. However, The Wire’s stories have vitiated the atmosphere and severely dented relationships and trust built over years in order for me to carry out the functions of my responsibility,” Malviya said.

It is clear that The Wire and some unknown persons entered into a criminal conspiracy with intent to malign and tarnish my reputation, deliberately inserted my name into a story, and fabricated evidence to implicate me. I am left with no option other than to seek legal remedies. pic.twitter.com/7Evz688TVo

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 28, 2022

“Consequently, I am left with no option other than to seek appropriate legal remedies against The Wire and its management/reporters,” he added.

In a statement on Thursday, the website said journalists rely on sources for stories and do their best to verify material they receive.

Also read: The Wire withdraws its stories on Meta; says reviewing its reportage

“Technological evidence is more complicated and the usual due diligence may not always reveal the fraud perpetrated upon a publication. This is what happened to us,” it said.

Malviya said the Wire‘s reports alleged that Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) regularly colludes with members of the BJP in removing content deemed unfavourable to the party.

Media read out on The Wire… pic.twitter.com/aETSkJZIpe

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 28, 2022

The stories claimed that he was allowed to post any content on Instagram without any of its filtration algorithms kicking in.

“The report went on to cite alleged internal correspondence of Meta to justify its claims, alleging I had used said privileges to take down a total of 705 posts to date,” he said.

Malviya said even after Meta issued a categorical denial and said the documents shown by the portal were “fabricated” and that the Xcheck status, the privilege reportedly bestowed on him, had been mischaracterised, the Wire instead of pausing its coverage and doing an internal audit went on to publish yet another “malicious” report.

“It is clear that The Wire and some unknown persons entered into a criminal conspiracy with intent to malign and tarnish my reputation, deliberately inserted my name into a story, and fabricated evidence to implicate me,” he said.

Malviya added, “This also undermines the democratic and informed choices that the public makes, through a carefully calibrated campaign of disinformation and calumny, and does irreparable harm to the democratic right of dissent.”

The news portal had also apologised to its readers for slippage in its editorial assessment.

On The Wire… pic.twitter.com/ElZNC9yVuO

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 27, 2022