BJP's Amit Malviya to sue 'The Wire', file FIR for 'fabricated' Meta nexus stories
Amit Malviya claims that the media outlet did not apologise to him even while retracting the articles. 'The Wire refrained from apologising to me despite maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career,' he said.
FollowBharatiya Janata Party National Information and Technology Department in-charge Amit Malviya will lodge an FIR with the police against 'The Wire' for now-retracted reportage claiming that Meta -- the parent company that owns Facebook and Instagram -- regularly colludes with members of the BJP in removing content deemed unfavourably to the party.
'The Wire' had retracted its story, but not after posting two separate reports on October 6 and October 10. The story on October 10 claimed that Amit Malviya was the nodal point between the party and Meta and that the latter had accorded the leader special privileges facilitating censorship.
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On Friday, the BJP leader said he would file an FIR against 'The Wire' and its management under sections that deal with criminal conspiracy, forgery, forgery for the purposes of cheating, forgery for the purposes of harming reputation, defamation and cheating, among others, against the publication. Malviya further said that he would initiate appropriate civil action for damages against 'The Wire' and its associates.
Questions were raised about the authenticity of the story when Meta's communication head Andy Stone, on October 11, claimed that the documents shown in 'The Wire' story were fabricated and that its internal processes had been mischaracterised. Meta also slammed the publication for posting the second set of allegations citing internal company emails rather than conducting an internal audit. The technology firm termed the reportage as 'malicious'.Â
Facing heat over its stories, 'The Wire' retracted the story and issued a public apology on October 27. However, Malviya claims that the media outlet did not apologise to him even while retracting the articles. 'The Wire refrained from apologising to me despite maligning and tarnishing my reputation and causing serious harm to my professional career,' he said.
'It is clear that 'The Wire' and some unknown persons entered into a criminal conspiracy with the intent to malign my reputation, deliberately inserted my name into a story, and fabricated evidence to implicate me. This also undermines the democratic and informed choices that the public makes through a carefully calibrated campaign of calumny and disinformation and does irreparable harm to the democratic right of dissent,' Malviya said.
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