On Tuesday, ‘fact-checking’ website Alt News took to social media to put out a statement giving itself a clean chit and tried to put on a blame to payment gateway website Razorpay. Alt News, in its statement, insinuated that Razorpay acted arbitrarily and disabled their ‘donation platform’ on receiving request from police authorities. Alt News claimed that Razorpay informed them that their account was reactivated by Razorpay after they got some clarity but they did not specify what the said clarity was.
Our statement on Razorpay: pic.twitter.com/8tO4xusQS8
— Alt News (@AltNews) July 5, 2022
Alt News then gave itself clean chit by claiming that if Razorpay had found Alt News violated terms of service, they would not have reenabled their account. Thereby insinuating that Razorpay reactivating their account was an evidence of their not being in violation of any rule of the platform.
Alt News then ‘reiterated’ that they can receive funds only through Indian banks and that foreign credit cards were never enabled on Razorpay’s backend, thereby trying to prove that they did not receive any foreign funding. Alt News also categorically claimed that the reports regarding it receiving foreign funds were false.
Then, throwing Razorpay under the bus, Alt News tried to dog-whistle against it by claiming that Razorpay handed over their data to the police. And that this was done without informing them or without any ‘prior investigation’ of any violation on part of Alt News. Alt News then claims that for now it is continuing with Razorpay as platform to receive donation but will look for alternate source in the meantime.
This statement of Alt News triggered ‘privacy’ enthusiasts who were upset that an online payment platform such as Razorpay shared the data with law enforcement agencies ‘without informing’. To make things clear, as per terms and conditions of Razorpay, it may share the user data with government and regulatory agencies who are lawfully authorised for investigative, protective and cyber security activities.
The full text of their terms and condition for sharing user data is as follows: “Razorpay may share any Content (defined hereinafter) generated by the User or their Registration Data with governmental and regulatory agencies who are lawfully authorised for investigative, protective and cyber security activities. Such information may be transferred for the purposes of verification of identity, or for prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution pertaining to cyber security incidents and punishment of offences under any law for the time being in force.”
Hence, if police or other investigation agency reached out to Razorpay to share Alt News data, the company, may share the data. This is one of the terms and conditions Alt News had agreed to before registering on the platform. Ignorance of law is not an excuse to break them, experts say. Razorpay is not quite legally bound to inform Alt News before providing data to law enforcement agencies should they ask for it, unlike what is being insinuated by Alt News. Further, as a law abiding corporate, why would Razorpay tip off an accused by giving them a heads up on the investigation.
Now, here is where things get slightly dicey.
Alt News may or may not have received foreign funds via Razorpay. However, Razorpay is not the only platform the ‘fact-checkers’ use to collect money.
In February 2020, during the height of anti-CAA protests that had turned violent, just 10 days before the Delhi anti-Hindu riots, ‘journalist’ Sagarika Ghose had announced how she had paid to Alt News via a platform ‘Instamojo’. Instamojo accepts payment via various gateways like VISA, G-Pay, UPI, RuPay and others.
Hence, while Alt News is trying to put all the blame on Razorpay, there is no proof as such, till investigative authorities carry out investigation in the matter, that Alt News did not receive foreign funds. Further, even if Alt News did not receive foreign funds via any of these donation platform, they could have received foreign funds directly in their bank accounts via SWIFT. A thorough investigations of the financials will hold the key in this matter.
Subsequent to the dog-whistling by Alt News against Razorpay casting aspersions over privacy concerns, the payment gateway platform issued a statement saying that under section 91 of the CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code), Razorpay was mandated by law to comply with the regulations as per provisions of the law. Under section 91 of CrPC, any court of police officer in charge can seek data for investigation.
Our statement regarding Alt News pic.twitter.com/ckzL0PfGry
— Razorpay (@Razorpay) July 5, 2022
Further, a Razorpay spokesperson while speaking to moneycontrol said that the company did try reaching out to Alt News but did not receive any response from them. “We tried reaching out to the company [AltNews] but did not receive any response and hence could not inform them before sharing the data or deactivating the account for a brief period on July 4,” the spokesperson told moneycontrol.
Alt News accused of having received funding from Pakistan, Syria, etc in violation of FCRA
‘Fact-checking’ platform Alt News, through its holding company Pravda Media Foundation, is accused of having received foreign funding in violation of FCRA (Foreign Currency Regulation Act) rules. Amongst other countries it is said they received funds from countries such as Pakistan and Syria as well. Mohammed Zubair, along with Pratik Sinha and his mother Nirjari Sinha, are the directors of the company.
Zubair was arrested on June 27 over allegations of hurting religious sentiments. Subsequent to his arrest, more sections were added as investigation revealed more discrepancies. It must be pointed out that only organisations with FCRA licences can accept foreign contributions. According to AltNews’ founder Pratik Sinha, the alleged fact-checking company does not have an FCRA licence.
