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HomeTechnologyIndian news outlet The Wire retracts its report on Meta

Indian news outlet The Wire retracts its report on Meta

The WireIndependent news outlet, based in India, has retracted the story in which Meta was accused of giving special permissions to an Indian politician to remove posts from its platforms. In Update posted Sunday, The Wire says it has decided to retract its report after “certain discrepancies” emerged in the evidence it used to back up its claims.

“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 outlet explains. “We are still reviewing the entire matter, including the possibility that it was deliberately sought to misinform or deceive The Wire.”

So far The Wire says the external investigators it’s using to review its reporting can’t validate the alleged email from Andy Stone, Meta’s policy communications director, that it presented as proof in its original report. They also can’t verify an email from Ujjwal Kumar, an independent expert cited in its story that signed off on some of the outlet’s investigative work (and who also denied that he ever sent an email to The Wire ).

If you’re not caught up with the story so far, you can read Our explanation of the whole thing. In short: The WirePublished a report that pointed out that Instagram had incorrectly flagged and removed an image mocking an Indian politician. It later claimed it got in touch with a source at Meta, who said Instagram removed the post at the request of Amit Malviya, the head of the information technology cell at India’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The WireAn alleged Malviya is a part of Facebook’s indisputably real XCheck, or crosscheck, system that lets certain high-profile users avoid the platform’s typical moderation policies, and that’s what allowed him to get away with removing the post. The outlet said it had the evidence to prove it, which included screenshots and videos of Instagram’s alleged internal system used by employees.

The Wire’s external investigators can’t validate the alleged email from Andy Stone it initially presented as proof

Meta later claimed that the evidence was faked and found a Workplace account that seemed to have been created specifically for support. The Wire’s claims. Users across the internet pointed out inconsistencies within its reporting. Despite adamantly pushing back on Meta’s denials and users’ findings for several days, The WireIt finally gave up, when it decided to suspend access to its stories. The company announced that it will conduct a review on the “source material and sources” used in the story.

It’s still unclear what led The Wire down this path in the first place, but the outlet’s not ruling out the possibility that someone tricked them into believing a false narrative. The Wire has also taken down a previous story from Devesh Kumar, one of the original story’s co-authors, who, According to PlatformerThe only person who had contact with the alleged source was he.

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