‘Fact-checking’ website AltNews and its out-on-bail co-founder Mohammed Zubair are back at what they do best- serving as the propaganda wing of Islamists by lying outright, misleading its audience and whitewashing their crimes.
This time, Zubair—the ‘poster boy’ of ‘fact-checking’, according to left-leaning liberals—and his website once again showed their unwavering allegiance to Islamists by partially ‘fact-checking’ a 4-year-old rape video that went viral recently on social media. They fact-checked that the crime did not happen in Bihar but in Uttar Pradesh, and that the crime happened 4 years ago. The ‘fact-check’ by Alt News, which often serves as a surrogate for leftwing political parties and apologists for Islamists, clarified that the victim was not a Muslim but a Dalit girl but it failed to highlight that the perpetrators were Muslims.
On December 28, AltNews published an article on its Hindi website where it ‘fact-checked’ a 4-year-old viral rape video which was originally from Uttar Pradesh. It’s Hindi article’s headline read- “UP में दलित लड़की के साथ 2019 में हुआ था गैंगरेप, वीडियो बिहार का बताकर वायरल” which translates to ‘Dalit girl was gang raped in UP in 2019, video went viral saying it was from Bihar’.
Mohammed Zubair also took to X to share the ‘fact-check’ done by his website. Tagging the AltNews journalist who authored the partial ‘fact-check,’ Zubair wrote in Hindi which translates to, “A horrifying video from Bihar has gone viral in which some boys are brutalizing a girl. The claim is that these are Hindu boys who are carrying out the incident by kidnapping a Muslim girl. This is not true. The video is from UP and is 4 years old.”
However, both the AltNews ‘fact-check’ report and Zubair’s post only presented half the truth. Though the AltNews report mentioned the name of the perpetrators towards the end of the report, it smartly framed the headlines of its report to mention how the crime happened 4 years ago in Uttar Pradesh and not Bihar but what it did not do was mention the names of the perpetrators who were Muslims in this case.
Zubair too, cleverly mentioned that the incident happened in Uttar Pradesh and not in Bihar as being circulated in the viral claim. He also mentioned that the claim that Hindu boys were carrying out the incident by kidnapping a Muslim girl was untrue. However, he avoided explicitly stating that it was Muslim youths who had carried out the heinous crime against the Dalit girl. What he essentially tried to do was meticulously word his post to provide enough room for speculation regarding the perpetrator’s religion while ‘fact-checking’ the footage.
If the circumstances had been reversed and Hindus would have been the perpetrators, this obviously would not have happened, but one would not expect any better from someone like Zubair, who has consistently put forth a lot of effort to spread the myth that Muslims are being persecuted because of their faith.
In 2020, during the peak of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak, the Tablighi Jamaat had emerged as the main virus vector. Then, Zubair and his “fact-checking” website AltNews played a leading role in defending the Islamic Missionary organization against all legitimate criticism. They misrepresented Tablighi Jamaat’s awful conduct, twisted facts, and lied to their audience to give the misleading impression that Muslims are being persecuted because of their faith.
Zubair does not even hesitate to politicise a matter as serious as rape if he could derive some political mileage from it. During the heinous Kathua Rape Case, OpIndia pointed out flaws in the claims being made by the Police and raised valid questions regarding the allegations being made against Vishal Jangotra. For merely asking questions, the Altnews cofounder had insinuated that Opindia was acting as an apologist for rapists. Ultimately, Vishal Jangotra was acquitted by the Court of all crimes.
Neither Zubair nor his website bothers to correct details even after being fact-checked
On December 29, popular X user @BefittingFacts quickly brought attention to the inherent bias of Md Zubair and his ‘fact-checking’ website Alt News towards radical factions of the Muslim community, which led them to engage in such selective ‘fact-checking.’
While sharing screenshots of Zubair’s post and the AltNews report, the X user wrote, “How @altnews does fact-checking. Claim1- Rape Video is from Bihar. Claim 2- Hindu boys are raping a Muslim girl. Altnews- This video is not from Bihar but from Uttar Pradesh and it is four years old. neither Altnews’ headline nor @zoo_bear mentioned that the boys were not Hindu but Muslims named Mohammed Nazim, Mohammed Aqib and Mohammed Chhotka. This is how Altnews Partially factcheck to protect muslims and takes donations from Hindus.”
However, even until this report was published, neither did Zubair rectify his post nor did his website modify its report’s headline to mention that the perpetrators were not Hindus but Muslims named Mohammed Nazim, Mohammed Aqib and Mohammed Chhotka. Selective and partial fact-checking has been Alt News’ forte, muddling the readers with fact-checks of inconsequential aspects of news and focusing only on those facets that help them bolster their propaganda.