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India today, Rajdeep Sardesai peddle lies about cremation ground for Covid-19 victims in Almora in Uttarakhand: Here is the truth

OpIndia Staff
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India today, Rajdeep Sardesai peddle lies about cremation ground for Covid-19 victims in Almora in Uttarakhand: Here is the truth

At a time as sensitive as this, when the entire country is trying to deal with the devastation caused by the raging Covid-19 cases, propagandist Rajdeep Sardesai, best known for spreading fake news, is busy milking the crisis to keep his fading career burgeoning. And, obviously, India Today is hand in gloves with its star journalist in his endeavour to spread his propaganda to achieve his goal.

Today Rajdeep Sardesai shared a report by India Today to peddle misinformation that villagers in Uttarakhand’s Almora district are being forced to cremate the dead in open fields because crematoriums are refusing to accept bodies of Covid victims. Tagging the CM of Uttarakhand, Tirath Singh Rawat, in his Tweet, Rajdeep lamented: “At least show dignity in death @TIRATHSRAWAT ji”.

Screengrab of Rajdeep Sardesai’s Tweet dated May 21

Interestingly, the India Today report that Rajdeep had shared to peddle his propaganda against the BJP government in Uttarakhand, mentioned: “With no help from the authorities or government, the relatives of Covid-19 victims are cremating the bodies deep in the hills”.

Excerpt from the India Today report

Casting aspersions at the state administration, the India Today report furthered that the cremations are being done by patients only as they receive no support from authorities.

Excerpt from the India Today report

However, other media reports suggest that India Today and its journalist Rajdeep Sardesai have lied blatantly to spread their propaganda against the BJP government in Uttarakhand.

Other media reports negate claims made by Sardesai

A report by news agency ANI clearly specifies that the Almora district administration has set up this new cremation ground in an open field area of Bhainsora, 15 km away from Almora district headquarters, and unlike the lie peddled by Sardesai and his media house, the bodies are being cremated in the Bhainsora farm with the help of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) personnel. In fact, ANI has quoted Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar as confirming that the bodies are being cremated by the State Disaster Response Fund personnel.

The report also negates the claim made by Rajdeep Sardesai that villagers were cremating bodies in the open field because crematoriums are refusing to accept bodies of Covid victims.

The ANI report clearly mentions that the decision to cremate the bodies of Covid victims in Almora’s Bhiansora farm was taken by the administration after villagers refused to cremate the bodies of their family members at the traditional crematoriums in the district.

Moreover, a report by Amar Ujala says that earlier, the district administration was cremating bodies along the banks of the river at Seraghat, Almora. However, the locals residing there raised objections fearing the risk of infection. The administration then set up a new cremation ground at Bhainsora Farm and also developed a new approach route to reach here.

Rajdeep Sardesai’s lie has not come as a surprise, since this is not the first time that the propagandist-in-chief has lied about a critical event to peddle his agenda. Be its the Republic Day insurrection or the Sohrabuddin Encounter Case or his propaganda regarding CAA, Rajdeep has not left a single opportunity to spread lies and fearmonger.

How Rajdeep Sardesai milked the Coronavirus crisis

Rajdeep Sardesai did not even stop peddling his agenda during the Coronavirus crisis. A Medical College in Devanagere, Karnataka had not paid the stipends of its students for 16 months. The propagandist-in-chief proceeded to target Prime Minister Modi’s drive to hail Corona Warriors.

Later, it was discovered that the Medical College in question was owned by a Congress leader and the BJP Government had asked the authorities to pay the students. He had also at one point discussed whether the success of the ‘Bengaluru model’ in combatting the Coronavirus was due to luck, hinting that the BJP Government in the state did not deserve credit for its initiatives.

Rajdeep Sardesai had also claimed that a man had died of starvation at Banda in Bundelkand, Uttar Pradesh. The DM of Banda had to fact-check the propagandist and reveal that the family had received food grains under various schemes free of cost and that the man had died to other reasons.

He had also claimed that Punjab had received only Rs. 71 crore from the central government to fight Covid-19 when, in reality, the state had received hundreds of crores in funding.

Islamist Sharjeel Usmani invokes Martin Luther King Jr to justify Delhi rioter Shahrukh pointing gun at police, celebrating Rohit Sardana’s death

OpIndia Staff
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Islamist Sharjeel Usmani invokes Martin Luther King Jr to justify Delhi rioter Shahrukh pointing gun at police, celebrating Rohit Sardana’s death

Islamist Sharjeel Usmani has invoked Martin Luther King Jr. to justify his morbid hatred against the Hindu community despite the fact that Muslims in India have never been subjected to slavery. In a long post shared on Twitter, Sharjeel Usmani has made an attempt to use the iconic American civil rights leader to further his hateful brand of politics.

His post was directed against people he calls ‘centrists’ and ‘liberals’. In the post, he once again justified celebrating the death of Rohit Sardana and called him a ‘genocide enabler’. He said, “Liberals and centrists hate ‘hate’ and want ‘peace’. They want Muslims and other marginalised communities to fight and resist the hate with love. Their definition of resistance and fight are not just empty rhetoric, given both the words fight and resistance are combative in nature, their calling out any language that challenges the prevalent status quo is a form of hatred.”

Source: Twitter

It was an obvious attempt to whitewash the hatred he has been inciting on social media. Sharjeel Usmani is the same person who had called Kashmiri Pandits the ‘most pampered minority’, a community that was subjected to a genocide by Islamic terrorists in Kashmir.

“Take for example, the death of Rohit Sardana and my comment on the news of his death. Sardana was a genocide enabler who not only proactively worked to dehumanise and criminalise Muslims, he openly justified acts of lynching with Hindutva narrations. However, for liberals and centrists, he was and is a hard-working and caring journalist with whom they had a little difference of opinion,” he continued.

Not merely that, Usmani also attempted to whitewash the crimes of Shahrukh Pathan who was seen wielding a gun during the Delhi Riots and pointing it as the Police. Usmani claims that Shahrukh was saving lives through an act of “self-defense”, a gross lie.

Sharjeel Usmani wrote, “Similarly, the condemnation following Shahrukh Pathan’s courageous act of self-defense is a classic example of how liberal betrayal manifests itself. Pathan saved liberals is not important for liberals and centrists. What is important is that he dared to pick up a gun and fight back, not in the performative sense, but real fight back.”

Statement by Sharjeel Usmani

“Our liberal and centrist friends believe mere performance of fighting back is okay but in a situation Shahrukh was in, sacrificing himself by letting himself and others being killed was better thing to do than what he actually did,” he says. According to the Newslaundry columnist, up is down, left is right and rioter Shahrukh was acting in self defense. It is quite mind-boggling how effortlessly he has manufactured his own version of reality.

Continuing his whitewashing of Islamist radicalism and violence, Usmani slandered Jai Shri Ram and the Hindu community once again. He said, “Jai Shri Ram is used to terrorise people and many of us have witnessed the slogan being used to terrorise and kill people. Me calling that out is not hatred, it is just. Them calling me out is not just hatred but also shameless hypocrisy. One cannot be allowed to enjoy group privileges that Hindu identity brings while distancing itself from the responsibility of being the member of that identity.”

Statement by Sharjeel Usmani

Only recently, Usmani had deliberately given communal colour to a random crime and claimed that the victim was forced to chant Jai Shri Ram without any evidence in order to target the Hindu community. Consequently, an FIR has been registered against him for the same. Yet, that does not appear to have deterred him from fanning communal tensions.

In the current post, it is quite evident that he is using liberal rhetoric dominant in western countries in order to appeal to western audiences. There is also the not-so-subtle attempt to draw equivalence with the Black Lives Matter movement despite the fact that there is no equivalence between the two contexts.

Mamata Banerjee to contest by-election from Bhabanipur to retain her post, current MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay resigns

OpIndia Staff
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Mamata Banerjee to contest by-election from Bhabanipur to retain her post, current MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay resigns

After losing Nandigram to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in the State Assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will contest from Bhabanipur assembly constituency. As she has become the CM without being a member of the legislative assembly, she needs to contest by-polls and become a member of the state legislative assembly within six months, in order to keep her position intact.

In such a situation, speculations are rife that Mamata Banerjee would go back to contesting the by-polls from her erstwhile seat of Bhabanipur, from where TMC leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay had won the election.

It is important to remember here that Mamata Banerjee had abandoned her old constituency to fight BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram in the recently concluded Assembly elections. Suvendu Adhikari had won the battle by a thin margin, marking a dent in TMC’s otherwise sweeping victory in the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021.

The Trinamool MLA who won from Bhawanipore, Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay, has already resigned from the Bengal assembly this afternoon to make way for his party boss to contest from the seat. West Bengal assembly speaker has reportedly accepted Chattopadhyay’s resignation.

ANI quoted WB Assembly Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay as saying: “I have enquired from him if he has resigned voluntarily and without coercion. I am satisfied, and I have accepted his resignation”.

Speaking to media before handing in his resignation to Assembly Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay, the TMC MLA said: “Mamata Banerjee will fight from Bhawanipore in the coming six months”. Reports say that Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay will continue as state Agriculture Minister for six months, during which time he will contest from another seat to return to the assembly.  

According to PTI, Chattopadhyay is likely to contest from Khardah seat where the by-poll has been necessitated after the death of TMC leader Kajal Sinha. He had died three days after the polling in his constituency took place.

Earlier it was also speculated that Mamata Banerjee may retain her post by becoming a member of the proposed upper house or Legislative Council in the state. On Thursday, the state govt had approved the setting up of the Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad in West Bengal. However, it will need the approval of the central government, and it may not materialise within 6 months even if it becomes reality. The state had a Legislative Council earlier, but it was abolished by 1969 by a coalition government of Left parties.

According to the rulebook, Banerjee will have to be elected within six months to continue holding the office of West Bengal CM. Article 164 of the constitution says a minister who is not an MLA within six months has to resign. 

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.

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