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Govt slams Twitter after platform tags Congress toolkit tweet as ‘manipulative media’, says effort to influence investigation

OpIndia Staff
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Govt slams Twitter after platform tags Congress toolkit tweet as ‘manipulative media’, says effort to influence investigation

The Government of India has slammed Twitter for adding a ‘manipulated media’ tag to tweets that shared images from the Congress toolkit. The Ministry of Electronics and IT has demanded that the tag be removed, asserting that it is up to investigative authorities and not Twitter to determine the veracity of the toolkit.

Sources within the Ministry said, “Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India has written a strong communication to the global team of Twitter registering objection on the use of “Manipulated Media” tag on certain Tweets made by Indian political leaders with reference to a toolkit created to undermine, derail and demean the efforts of the Government against COVID19 pandemic.”

“In its communication to Twitter, the Ministry has stated that a complaint has already been made by one of the concerned parties before local law enforcement agency questioning the veracity of the toolkit and the same is under investigation.” Sources said that Twitter has taken an arbitrary and unilateral decision regarding the matter.

Sources said, “Such tagging by Twitter appears prejudged, prejudiced and a deliberate attempt to colour the investigation by local law enforcement agency. The Ministry has termed such unilateral action by Twitter as an effort to influence the fair investigation process and a clear overreach, which is totally unwarranted.”

“Ministry of Electronics and IT has further stated in its communication that Twitter unilaterally chose to go ahead and designate certain tweets as ‘Manipulated’, pending investigation by law enforcement agency. This action not only dilutes the credibility of Twitter as a neutral and unbiased platform facilitating exchange of views by the users but also puts a question mark on the status of Twitter as an “Intermediary”,” they added.

Twitter had added the ‘manipulated media’ tag to a tweet by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra a day after Congress wrote a letter to Twitter asking to permanently suspend the accounts of BJP leaders for allegedly “spreading misinformation”. The Government has now demanded that the tag be removed in the interests of fairness and equity.

In his tweets, Patra had accused the Congress party of carrying out PR exercise with the help of “Friendly Journalists” and “Influencers”. Twitter, acting arbitrarily on the demands of Congress, has not revealed on what basis it concluded that the ‘toolkit’ tweet of the BJP leader was manipulative. After flagging the tweet, Twitter has claimed that the tweets have violated its “Synthetic and manipulated media policy”.

Mutations present in Coronavirus B.1.617 strain, dubbed as India strain and Modi strain, originated in the USA and Denmark

OpIndia Staff
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Mutations present in Coronavirus B.1.617 strain, dubbed as India strain and Modi strain, originated in the USA and Denmark

In a significant discovery, the scientists have traced the origin of B.1.617 strain of the Sars-Cov2 virus to the United States and Denmark. The B.1.617 strain is largely responsible for the ongoing second wave in India, and it was being dubbed as the Indian variant. But now scientists have determined that the mutations present in the variant had first emerged in California and Denmark, reports Times of India.

According to GISAID, an open-source genome sequencing library, the B.1.617 lineage is divided into 3 sub-lineages – B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3 – based on the presence of different mutations. While B.1.617.1 has recorded 192 cases, B.1617.2 has been found in 494 cases in the United States. This includes 126 cases in California, where the original mutation source have originated, 82 in Washington, 42 in New York and 39 in New Jersey among other states.

The B.1617 Covid variant and its sub-variants are responsible for the second wave of the pandemic in India. Following the advent of the second wave in India, microbiologists and genome sequencing specialists found that B.1.617 strain is a combination of 15 mutations and has spike protein mutations, including one L452R that is believed to have originated either from the US or Denmark.

As per microbiologists, another mutation – E484Q was originated in Denmark. The scientists have said that they are not worried about the origin of the mutation but are more interested in finding out how far it can mutate.

“It is now well established that variant B.1.617 is a combination of mutations found in the US. But tracing back the lineage of mutation events from the California event to the current one is difficult to establish. Our focus now will be on which variant is doing what and how we can efficiently handle its transmission. We will be submitting a report on this strain’s source and journey till now,” said scientist Dr Rakesh Mishra, director, CCMB and member, Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG).

Earlier, Dr Mishra had said that India should strengthen the sequencing of re-infections and vaccine breakthroughs. Some scientists in the US believe that the L452R mutated last year itself in March 2020.

Bijaya Dhakal, director, molecular laboratory, at Sonic Reference Laboratory, Texas, US, said that the place of origin and emergence of variants is irrelevant and the scientists should not be identifying the variants by the place/country of emergence. However, it is a matter of record that L452R and E484Q mutations were actually seen in samples collected in Denmark during early March 2020.

The mutations emerged independently of each other in different samples and The L452R mutation was found in the US a month later in April 2020 in Lyon, Nevada, Dr Dhakal added.

“As we start to sequence stored residual samples, the time and place of the origin of the mutations will inevitably change,” he added, sharing the US results of the B.1.617 strains on Monday.

The discovery of the origin of the lethal B.1.617 strain of the Sars-Cov2 virus holds significance as a concerted campaign has been launched lately against India by certain vested interests, including the country’s opposition parties, to attribute the strain to India by naming it as ‘Indian variant’ or ‘Indian strain’.

In fact, the Congress party had gone a step further to name the variant as ‘Modi strain’ in an attempt to defame the Modi government and exploit the ongoing Covid-19 crisis in the country to further their political agenda. The Congress party’s nefarious designs to name the B.1.617 variant after Prime Minister Modi was exposed during the latest toolkit fiasco.

After Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal angers a friendly nation like Singapore, AAP member lauds CM for his ‘stature’

OpIndia Staff
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After Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal angers a friendly nation like Singapore, AAP member lauds CM for his ‘stature’

A day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was reprimanded by EAM S Jaishankar and the Singapore government for peddling unverified information about a new variant of Covid-19, AAP social media member was seen rejoicing about the idea of angering a friendly nation.

On Thursday (May 20), Deep Prakash Pant claimed, “The stature of Arvind Kejriwal has increased so much that even neighbouring nations are shaken by his tweets.” He paid no heed to the fact that the Delhi CM’s misleading tweet had the potential to sour diplomatic relations between India and Singapore.

Screengrab of the tweets by Deep Prakash Pant

“Even the Singapore Education Minister had warned about the same earlier and closed down schools,” he alleged. Pant, who boasts of 12.3K followers and is a member of the AAP National social media team, further reiterated the lies peddled by Arvind Kejriwal about a ‘Singapore Covid-19 variant.’

How Arvind Kejriwal nearly hijacked bilateral ties between India and Singapore?

On Tuesday (May 18), Arvind Kejriwal claimed on Twitter that a new variant of Covid-19 was found in Singapore, which could result in India’s third wave. Resorting to unnecessary fear-mongering, the Delhi Chief Minister put out unverified information to claim that the new variant was extremely dangerous for children. He had also urged PM Modi to immediately halt air services with Singapore and prioritize vaccination drive for children.

The Singapore government refuted all the claims made by Arvind Kejriwal and stressed that no new coronavirus strain had been detected in the city-state. Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri also fact-checked his claims. The minister reminded him that there were no commercial flights between India and Singapore and there was no ‘air-bubble’ operation either. The official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs revealed that the Singapore government had called the High Commission raising a strong objection to Kejriwal’s statement.

MEA had made it clear that Kejriwal has no authority to either pronounce Covid variants or decide India’s civil aviation policy. Union Minister Dr. S Jaishankar too responded sternly to Kejriwal’s unverifiable claims. Singapore High Commissioner to India Simon Wong said that the false statements by Arvind Kejriwal would invite actions under Protection from Online Falsehoods & Manipulation Act (POFMA), an act intended to mitigate misinformation in the country. However, he added that they were satisfied with the government of India’s clarification. The social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and HardwareZone.com were instructed by the Singapore government to carry a Correction Notice for all the end-users of these platforms in Singapore.

Goa govt to move HC against Tarun Tejpal’s acquittal, CM Pramod Sawant says won’t tolerate any wrong done to a woman

OpIndia Staff
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Goa govt to move HC against Tarun Tejpal’s acquittal, CM Pramod Sawant says won’t tolerate any wrong done to a woman

After a district court in Goa absolved Tarun Tejpal, the founder-editor of the Tehelka Magazine in a 2013 sexual harassment case, Goa Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant said the state government will appeal against the verdict in the Bombay High Court.

Speaking on the acquittal of Tarun Tejpal, CM Sawant said his government would not any wrong done to a woman.

“The State Government will appeal against this verdict in the High Court. The govt is very serious about this,” said CM Sawant, adding that he had seen the evidence on record and documents related to the case and was personally convinced that the verdict should be appealed against.

Tarun Tejpal acquitted by a Goa court in 2013 sexual harassment case

Earlier today, the sessions court in Goa quashed all the charges filed against Tarun Tejpal in the rape case. The Additional Sessions Judge Kshama Joshi had earlier reserved the verdict in the seven-year-old case. Interestingly, the trial was held in-camera at Tejpal’s instance.

Francisco Tavora, the special public prosecutor, declared the verdict to be a “serious setback”, adding that the state government will be preparing to file an appeal against the order in the High Court. “Accused has been acquitted of all charges. We are waiting for a copy of the judgement, but the state will be preparing for an appeal against the judgement. That’s all that I can say at this point,” said Tavora while speaking to the media.

The far-left journalist was accused of forcing himself on a colleague against her wishes inside an elevator of the Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, Goa, on November 7, 2013, during an official event. He had stepped down as editor six months after being accused of sexual assault.

The Goa Police had subsequently registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Tejpal for various offences, including rape. He was arrested in November 2013 and later released on bail in July 2014. Tejpal was charged under IPC Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (sexual harassment), 354A(1)(I)(II)(demand for sexual favours), 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 376 (2)(f) (person in a position of authority over women, committing rape) and 376(2)(k) (rape by a person in a position of control).

The trial against Tejpal started in 2017. Meanwhile, Tejpal had filed a petition in the Bombay High Court seeking dismissal of the case against him, claiming that the charges were fabricated. Both High Court and Supreme Court had also dismissed the plea in 2019.

Tejpal expresses his gratitude for Congress leaders

In an official statement released, Tejpal had thanked the people who helped him in the legal battle. He said, “In these 8 years a host of outstanding lawyers came to our aid, and we owe them all a deep debt, prime among them Pramod Dubey, Aamir Khan, Ankur Chawla, Amit Desai, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Aman Lekhi, Sandeep Kapoor, Raian Karanjewala, and Shrikant Shivade.”

IFCN and its history of motivated fact checks: An effort by Hillary supporters to regain their failing grip over public discourse

K Bhattacharjee
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IFCN and its history of motivated fact checks: An effort by Hillary supporters to regain their failing grip over public discourse

There is a concerted manner in which the Left Cabal, in concert with their Big Business masters, prop up dubious networks and groups in order to hijack a particular phenomenon in order to sustain their monopoly over the narrative. The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) is one such effort.

During the early days of social media, and for a long time afterwards, it was organic and there were very few rules and regulations. The organic structure of social media allowed people to voice their own thoughts freely and dominance of mainstream media over public discourse was demolished bit by bit.

Thus, we saw the rise of Prime Minister and Donald Trump, who despite their numerous differences in personality, used social media effectively in order to reach people directly and thereby, boosted their campaigns greatly.

The mainstream media was shocked by the development and their resultant irrelevance. Therefore, they had to try and hijack control back from the people. Thus, social media platforms enforced numerous rules and regulations to boost censorship, all the while cheered on by journalists themselves.

In order to further strengthen their hold, the specter of ‘fake news’ was invented in order to target their political opponents. The real concern was not fake news, clearly. Because mainstream media is the biggest peddler of fake news.

The Specter of Fake News

In India, we have consistently documented the numerous times when mainstream media has peddled fake news in order to peddle the political agenda of their masters. In the USA, the most dangerous fake news over time have been peddled by the likes of CNN, NYT and Washington Post.

For instance, the Russian collusion hoax was dangerous fake news that has led to significant tensions between two of the biggest nuclear powers. Then we had the Kavanaugh hoax where the media provided platform to charlatan Michael Avenatti to spread fake news in order to boost his own political career.

Then we had the Covington Kids hoax in which a major news channel had to settle a legal suit by a student who was portrayed as a ‘White Supremacist’ by the media over a misleading video clip of an altercation. Thus, quite clearly, ‘fake news’ is not the primary concern here.

But, in order to regain their hold over public discourse, the Left Cabal in concert with their masters floated the IFCN whose primary job it is to accredit ‘fake checkers’ of their favoured political dispensation.

The bias of IFCN

One of the ‘fact checkers’ they had accredited was Alt News, whose founders have a significant record of peddling fake news themselves. Their ideological orientation is well documented as well. Recently, they had justified Islamist Sharjeel Usmani celebrating the death of Rohit Sardana because of political differences.

Another IFCN-accredited ‘fact-checker’ Boom Live, too, has a track record of peddling fake news. Boom Live, in one such instance, peddled a conspiracy theory about Justice Muralidhar’s transfer days after it was transferred.

IFCN has denied accreditation to media houses in the past due to nothing more than disagreement over politics. OpIndia and Facthunt were denied accreditation citing reasons that undeniably bore the taint of bias. Our complete response can be read here.

That they have little regard for fact-checks in and of themselves is further evidenced by the fact that fact-checker accredited by them regularly peddle fake news themselves and dub true events as fake.

What happens when IFCN accreditation for research purposes?

In November, 2018, BBC came up with a shoddy research to blame Nationalism for the rise in fake news. Ultimately, they were forced to backtrack after OpIndia published a series of article debunking their ‘research’.

One of the main reasons why the BBC got it so wrong is the fact that they relied on biased fact-checkers for their research. The bias crept in because they relied on IFCN accredited ‘fact-checkers’ for their research.

Thus, what happens when researchers rely on IFCN for research purposes? They end up reaching faulty conclusions that eventually forces them to pull down their research in their entirety. The BBC research has several other flaws but one of the primary ones was their reliance on biased sources of fake news.

IFCN is not designed for an authentic mechanism to curb fake news. Its sole purpose is to assist the Left cabal in maintaining their grip over public discourse under the garb of fighting ‘fake news’. Thus, it is extremely dangerous that Facebook partners with only IFCN accredited ‘fact checkers’ to combat fake news.

Twitter, too, has relied on such ‘fact checkers’ to dub tweets as ‘manipulated media’, which continues to be a cause for concern. It is also to be noted that the Poynter Institute, which owns the IFCN, also owns the Tampa Bay Times, a media outlet which endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Presidency of the United States of America in 2016.

Domino’s data breach explained: Leaked data now available through search portal on the dark web, over 13TB of data leaked

Anurag
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Domino’s data breach explained: Leaked data now available through search portal on the dark web, over 13TB of data leaked

On April 16, 2021, hackers had announced on an infamous hackers’ forum that they got access to the Domino’s India servers and downloaded 13 TB of data that contained employee and customer data. The threat actors also claimed that they got over one million credit cards’ information used to place orders on the application.

Sample data search result

In the initial post on the forum, the hackers wrote, “We breached Domino’s India and got 13TB all internal files of 250 employees from IT, Legal, Finance, Marketing, Operations etc. We got all customers details, and 180M order details (name, ph number, email, delivery address, payment details) and 1M credit cards used to purchase on Dominos app. Internal files contain all files from 2015-2021 and lots of outlook mail archives. Breach – April 2021.”

When we further examined the thread, it was easier to create a timeline of the events.

On April 16, hackers announced that they breached Domino’s servers.

Hackers post detailing out the breach

On April 17, they mentioned in the comments that they were looking for 10 BTC (Bitcoin) for the data. At that time, they had an offer of 2 BTC in hand. As they had mentioned that Domino’s might pay them 50 BTC, it was clear that they had contacted Jubilant Foodworks, the parent company of Domin’s. The hackers also said that they were planning to build a search engine like other hackers’ group did in the case of MobiKwik. Notably, the hackers were ready to pay $1000 to someone who could help them create the search engine.

Hackers mentioned they were looking for 10 BTC for the data. Also hinted they were in contact with Domino’s parent company

On April 18, security experts published details of the breach on social media platforms.

On April 19, news agencies started to pick up the news, and several reported popped up on different news portals.

News portals started to pick up news on April 19

On April 19, Jubilant Foodworks issued a statement and said, “Jubilant Foodworks experienced an information security incident recently. No data pertaining to the financial information of any person was accessed, and the incident has not resulted in any operational or business impact. As a policy, we do not store financial details or credit card data of our customers, thus no such information has been compromised.”

On April 21, the hackers announced that their search engine was ready, and they were uploading the data.

Hackers announced they are uploading database on search engine

On May 20, they finally announced Dark Weblink to the search engine.

Hackers announce search engine on dark web

Experts’ opinion on the breach

Though Jubilant Foodworks did not seem to have taken any step to avert data getting in the hands of scammers, the said data has the potential to cause serious privacy concerns. The problem is that companies like Domino’s customers share several personal information that can potentially cause financial or even physical harm. Those who tend not to share their address with anyone are searchable only with the phone number.

Independent Security Researcher Sourajeet Majumder published a thread on Twitter explaining the breach. He said that he was able to see all the personal details on the search engine. He said, “On using the search portal made by the threat actor, I was able to find my phone number/email, all delivery addresses, delivery amount and order time & date.”

When OpIndia talked to Sunny Nehra, Admin at Hacks And Security, about the Domino’s data breach, he said, “It has become such a common practice first to have flimsy security and then claim there is no privacy concern. If such companies do not start taking such breaches seriously, they will lose trust among the customers.”

Alon Gal, Co-Founder & CTO, Hudson Rock, had shared the information about the breach in April. He wrote, “Threat actor claiming to have hacked Domino’s India and stealing 13TB worth of data. Information includes 180,000,000 order details containing names, phone numbers, emails, addresses, payment details, and a whopping 1,000,000 credit cards.”

“Plenty of large scale Indian breaches lately, this is worrying,” he had added.

We have hidden the information of the hacker, dark weblink and other identification markers.

Journalists told Maharashtra minister to slow down Covid testing because it was showing state in bad light: Watch what Minister Nawab Malik said

OpIndia Staff
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Journalists told Maharashtra minister to slow down Covid testing because it was showing state in bad light: Watch what Minister Nawab Malik said

On Thursday (May 21), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson Nawab Malik sparked controversy after revealing that a few journalists asked him to reduce the number of Covid-19 tests in Maharashtra. He claimed that the suggestion had come in the backdrop of the rising Coronavirus cases in the State.

In an interview with AajTak, he informed how a few ‘unnamed’ journalists had wanted the NCP to reduce the number of tests in order to avoid a public backlash over increasing Covid-19 cases. At about 3:09 minutes into the conversation, Nawab Malik said, “Maharashtra had the highest number of cases since Day 1. And we were way ahead of others in terms of cases, even at the peak of the virus’ virality. But you would never see anyone not finding a bed or moving around with an oxygen cylinder in hand.”

“When we were increasing the pace of Coronavirus tests, we began receiving phone calls from some journalists. They had asked us to decreased Covid-19 testing as the number of cases in the State was increasing. (They had even told us) that the rising cases were bringing ridicule for the Maharashtra government. But, since we did our work seriously, this has become our strength,” he concluded.

(Video Courtesy: Youtube/ Aaj Tak)

Netizens react to the sensational claims of Nawab Malik

Following his remarks, several Twitter users have demanded that the NCP leader expose such journalists. Popular Twitter user @BefittingFacts informed, “Hello Nawab Malik, can you tell the name of journalists who ask to slow down testing?”

BJP social media Cell member Pallavi wrote, “Will Nawab Malik tell us who are these “patrakar sathi” who were “advising” him to TEST LESS to avoid negative publicity? Testing fast is the best way to control this pandemic- those who are giving such advice must be treated like criminals & booked under Epidemic Diseases Act.”

Similarly, several netizens asked the minister to reveal the names of the journalists who had asked to reduce the number of Covid-19 tests in Maharashtra.

Earlier, in an RTI filed by activist Vivek Pandey, it was revealed that the Chief Minister of Maharashtra wrote a letter to PM in the last week of August 2020 and did not communicate with him until the first week of April 2021. By that time, the state was under the immense pressure of the second wave already. In between, it was the Central Government that had approached the Maharashtra Government in March 2021 to be on high alert as the state was on the brick of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. As of May 21, Maharashtra has reported 3,85,785 active cases and a total of 85,355 fatalities.

Pfizer wants waiver of liabilities due to possible adverse effect of its vaccine in India, won’t transfer technology for local production

OpIndia Staff
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Pfizer wants waiver of liabilities due to possible adverse effect of its vaccine in India, won’t transfer technology for local production

Amidst the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic in India, US-based vaccine manufacturer Pfizer has reached a deadlock with the Indian authorities over its indemnity clause. It has sought waiver against liabilities that may occur out of the adverse effects of the vaccine, reported The Economic Times (ET). Pfizer is marketing its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine across the world, which was developed in collaboration with German biotechnology company BioNTech SE.

Pfizer has also informed that it has no plans to start production in the country. The pharmaceutical company said that it is not in talks with Indian authorities regarding production or technology transfer. As such, Pfizer jabs, if used in India, would be imported from its manufacturing sites in Europe and the United States. This will probably result in higher price of the vaccine in India, due to shipping costs and higher cost of manufacturing in the US and Europe compared to India.

In an email to the Economic Times, a Pfizer spokesperson said, “At this time, we are not in discussions for any additional local manufacturing for this vaccine. Once the pandemic supply phase is over and we enter a phase of regular supplies, Pfizer will evaluate all additional opportunities available…We continue to centrally manufacture and deploy (from US and European facilities) our vaccine during this pandemic phase.”

In its defence, the company said that the development, manufacture, distribution, and storage of its mRNA technology-based vaccine needs globally optimised supply. Pfizer is eyeing to deliver 2.1 billion doses in 2021. It has plans to expand its manufacturing and supplier base.

Screengrab of the e-paper of the Economic Times

The company’s spokesperson informed, “We have a robust supply chain in place with established capabilities — one each in the US and Europe — that can quickly manufacture and deploy the vaccine for use across the world.” As of May 21, India has administered a total of 19.18 crore vaccine doses.

It must be mentioned that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has earlier asked global vaccine manufacturers to share technology with companies in Asian and African countries. This would have helped in increasing local vaccine manufacturing and tide over the vaccine shortage. The Pfizer vaccine approval in India is stuck over an indemnity clause (agreement wherein one party offers financial compensation for losses or damages caused by another party).

Economic Times reported that Pfizer wanted a waiver from liabilities that might occur due to adverse effects of vaccines. It is in line with the company’s stand in dealings with other countries on the vaccine. It was earlier reported that Pfizer had asked several Latin American nations to pledge their sovereign and military assets, including federal reserves and embassies in foreign countries, as indemnity against any future liability that may arise due to side effects of the vaccine or any negligence of the company. The Pharmaceutical giant had also asked the countries to deposit bank guarantees in foreign countries as part of such indemnity.

Twitter marked image as ‘manipulated media’ based on no proof and only politically motivated FIRs: Twitter a part of Congress Toolkit now?

Jinit Jain
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Twitter marked image as ‘manipulated media’ based on no proof and only politically motivated FIRs: Twitter a part of Congress Toolkit now?

On 19 May 2021, Congress shot off an email to Twitter, asking the social media behemoth to permanently suspend Twitter accounts of BJP leaders JP Nadda, Sambit Patra, Smriti Irani, BL Santosh and many other functionaries for sharing a toolkit, which they claimed was prepared by the Congress party to sully the reputation of the Modi government amidst the raging COVID-19 outbreak.

The email was sent a day after the BJP leaders had exposed a toolkit that entailed point-by-point instructions for the Congress workers for attacking the Modi government. From maligning the Kumbh Mela and describing it as ‘super spreader’ to using international media and ‘friendly’ journalists to defame PM Modi, to blocking beds and hoarding other essential supplies for favourable social media PR, the content of the toolkit included a range of directives for the loyal Congress leaders and supporters to be followed to paint PM Modi and his government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak in a bad light.

In its email, Congress accused the BJP leaders and functionaries of spreading misinformation and declared the toolkit to be a forged document. However, it did not provide any proof to back its claim that the toolkit document was fabricated and not genuine. Instead, it only attached politically motivated FIRs that the party had filed against the BJP leaders after they shared the toolkit, allegedly linked to the Congress party.

“On 18.05.2021, various BJP functionaries- including Mr J.P Nadda (4JPNadda), National President, BJP; Mr. Sambit Patra Ki sambitswaraj), National Spokesperson, BJP; Mrs Smriti Irani (@smritiirani), BJP Leader and Minister; Mr BL Santosh (Siblsantosh), General Secretary of BJP & other persons, in a pre-planned criminal conspiracy, prepared a forged & fabricated the letterhead of the INC Research Department and thereafter printed certain mischievous, false and fabricated content on the same, for the purpose of vide dissemination through their official Twitter handles, with the clear intent to cause social unrest, communal disharmony in order to fuel hate and escalate violence in various parts of India,” the email read.

The Congress party asked Twitter to carry out a detailed investigation on the matter and permanently suspend the Twitter accounts of BJP leaders. “Also, you are requested to kindly carry out a detailed probe on the subject matter and permanently suspend the Twitter accounts of the above-named individuals, as the said persons are habitual of manufacturing forged content and misusing the Twitter platform for disseminating the same,” the email said.

Within a day, Twitter promptly obliged to Congress party’s request and marked the tweet carrying the photo of the Congress toolkit as ‘manipulated media’. On 19 May 2021, Twitter marked Sambit Patra’s tweet on the Congress toolkit as ‘manipulated media’, a label it grants to tweets that it deems are misleading in nature. Not only did Twitter show an unmatched alacrity to label the tweet as ‘manipulated media’, but it also did so in absence of credible evidence that conclusively proves that the toolkit document was indeed fabricated.

Propaganda website AltNews did try to give a clean chit to Congress in the toolkit fiasco, but they only ended up exposing the symbiotic relationship they share with the Congress party. In its rush to declare the toolkit to be fake, AltNews provided ludicrous justifications and flimsy arguments to declare that the toolkit was a forged document.

Based on no proof and politically motivated FIRs attached by Congress, Twitter decided to attach a ‘manipulated media’ tag to the tweet, raising suspicions of it being a part of the toolkit that was designed to malign the Modi government.

Twitter’s conspicuous discrimination against the BJP and its penchant of meddling in India’s politics

As such, if Twitter’s past antecedents are to be considered, it has always displayed fervid zeal in marking the tweets put out by BJP leaders as ‘manipulated media’, even when those tweets were meant to debunk patently misleading information shared by the Congress leaders, including their former president Rahul Gandhi.

In December 2020, BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya shared a video debunking the lies peddled by the Congress leaders. Malviya shared a video in response to an image shared by Rahul Gandhi wherein he insinuated that the police was beating up an old farmer.

The video showed that the law enforcement official who is portrayed in the image shared by Rahul Gandhi as beating up an old ‘farmer’ simply swung the baton in the air to scare the protester away. The baton did not touch the protester. Yet, several Congress leaders and the IT cell bot deceitfully shared the picture to paint the security official of using violence against the old farmer.

Malviya had shared a video to call out this treachery of the Congress leaders. However, his tweet was labelled by Twitter as ‘manipulated media’ while no such label was attached to scores of tweets posted by Congress leaders that carried the misleading picture.

Later in March 2021, Congress IT Cell head Rohan Gupta shared a cropped video from PM Modi’s rally in Assam on Twitter. PM Modi in the video had called out Congress formula of keeping the poor poor and exploiting them for electoral gains. However, the snippet shared by Gupta was carefully cropped to give an impression that PM Modi was advocating the exploitation of the poor for votes.

Gupta conveniently edited out the part in which PM Modi elaborated on how it was the Congress modus operandi of preying on the poor and making false promises to them to win their votes. However, Twitter did not bother to mark Gupta’s tweet as ‘manipulated media’.

On the other hand, former JNU leader Umar Khalid, who is in jail for his involvement in the Delhi riots, still has a verified Twitter account. Similarly, Disha Ravi, the 21-year-old woman who was accused of creating and distributing the ‘toolkit’ related to the farmer protests in Delhi, was granted a verified tick by Twitter.

It leads one to wonder if Twitter is really impartial in dishing out its misleading content label or whether such categorisation is only reserved for the tweets posted by the BJP leaders and not for the opposition politicians who peddle falsehoods and manipulated content. Twitter’s starkly prejudicial behaviour naturally adds more weight to the suspicions that the social media tech giant was a part of the toolkit all along.

Did the media highlight that Gaza violence began after Palestinians refused to follow COVID rules?

Abhishek Banerjee
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Did the media highlight that Gaza violence began after Palestinians refused to follow COVID rules?

As the second wave of Coronavirus raged, the Indian state appeared to run out of everything: hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, even space in crematoriums and burial grounds. The tone of our liberal critics was at once both furious and self-congratulatory. See? This is what happens when a nation talks more about building temples than building hospitals. As we struggle to cremate our dead, you can barely miss the gleam in the eyes of our critics.

We are having a hard time right now, which means we have to swallow all the bitter pills they toss in our way. Perhaps the critics were right after all. Come, let us beat ourselves up on how stupid we were. Why did we have to get busy with Ram Mandir or have those giant gatherings for Kumbh Mela? How could we not have known better?

Hospitals over temples! It certainly sounds like something that enlightened people would say. Let’s just hope that this principle applies not only to temples but to all houses of worship.

Tweet by Saba Naqvi

Oh well. Important for us not to lose sight of what matters. Among that, the crisis in the Middle East. So take a map of the Arab world and follow along. Now, increase your image resolution until you can see this microscopic country, about one fourth the size of West Bengal, which is occupying the whole of the Middle East and all of North Africa. It’s the state of Israel. Found it? Good.

So why is there a crisis over there? You probably already know. First, the Jewish people just had to insist on having a state of their own. Then, they just had to win a series of wars thrust upon them by like half a dozen countries. And then, they just had to have a democracy, the only one in the Middle East. Enough to trigger most liberals.

Anyway, I was talking about more immediate reasons for this crisis. What did Israel do now? To quote Al Jazeera:

“There have been nightly disturbances in the area since the start of Ramadan on April 13, with Palestinians outraged by police blocking access to the promenade around the walls, a popular gathering place after the end of the daytime Ramadan fast.“

That’s just wrong of Israel. Everyone knows that religious gatherings are the most important thing in the world. By the way, did the Israelis give any reason for this undemocratic ban?

“… worshippers were angered by Israeli restrictions that denied access to West Bank Palestinians without COVID-19 vaccination documents.“

Come on Israel, be reasonable. What kind of sensible country would ask people for Covid vaccination documents before coming to a religious gathering? Have you ever heard what Indian liberals have to say about this? Or listen to the great Ikrima Sabri, religious leader and possibly world-renowned medical doctor, explain:

“Ikrima Sabri, who led Friday prayers, accused Israel of “exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to intervene in the affairs of the blessed Aqsa mosque” “

I agree. Israel can’t interfere with freedom of religion just like that. At least, they could allow people to have small gatherings, of say 20 people or 50 people, or something like that.

“But Israeli officials said they restricted to 10,000 the number of vaccinated Palestinians entering from the West Bank because of “high morbidity rates” from coronavirus in Palestinian Authority areas.“

Sorry, 20 people, 50 people, or 10,000 people. What’s the difference, really? It is still government interference in matters of religion. Any limit is undemocratic. What happened next? As Al Jazeera explains:

“Later on Friday, the Israeli army said at least 10 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards southern Israel into the early hours of the morning – the most in one night since the beginning of the year.“

So Israel required vaccination certificates and restricted religious gatherings to 10,000 people. At this, people got so angry they fired rockets into Israel and started a whole war. Now tell me how many media reports have highlighted this aspect of how the violence began.

Stop Kumbh Mela.

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