It seems that the ‘Meta Vs The Wire’ saga is not ending anytime soon. A privacy researcher named V Anand took to Twitter on October 20 to debunk the claims that he endorsed The Wire’s Devesh Kumar’s work in Meta controversy. He said some WhatsApp groups were discussing such claims.
Anand said, “I have been seeing some claims in WA groups that I endorsed Devesh’s work on Meta w/ screenshots of my interactions w/ him. Those claims are fraudulent, and I only pushed for more details like Pranesh did, which incidentally never came.”
I am really getting tired of the constant chicanery and deception. It is really bonkers that this is happening to drum up credibility on what was now clearly a dead and buried story. Notified @svaradarajan about this.
— V. Anand | வெ. ஆனந்த் (@iam_anandv) October 20, 2022
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He added, “I am really getting tired of the constant chicanery and deception. It is really bonkers that this is happening to drum up credibility on what was now clearly a dead and buried story. Notified Siddharth Varadarajan about this.”
It is likely that his October 18 tweet was being misinterpreted as an endorsement of the claims made by The Wire about Meta and BJP in its reports that have been since removed from the website pending an internal inquiry. He had said, “The painful reality of newsrooms when it comes to tech reporting. Complete breakdown of process failure. I have reviewed the details, and as shocking as they are, they are true.”
The painful reality of news rooms when it comes to tech reporting. Complete breakdown of process failure.
— V. Anand | வெ. ஆனந்த் (@iam_anandv) October 18, 2022
I have reviewed the details and as shocking as they are, they are true. https://t.co/YlqAGKNi8e
Again, this we are making a calculated guess because at this point, in this Meta vs The Wire controversy, everything is just too bizarre.
Anand was quoting Kanishk, a researcher who The Wire claimed to have validated Meta’s communication head Andy Stone’s emails. Notably, it was after Kanishk’s statement on Twitter that the email that named him was fabricated and he never validated anything for The Wire the whole story built by The Wire fell apart, and the publishing house issued a statement that it was retracting the report and initiating an internal investigation.
The ‘Meta Vs The Wire’ saga
On October 6, The Wire published a story that Instagram took down a post critical of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The post was published by a small private account known among its 250+ followers for posting “cringe” memes. On October 10, The Wire published another story claiming the post was brought down as BJP’s IT Cell Chief Amit Malviya, who did not even follow the private Instagram account, reported it. The Wire further claimed Malviya was on Meta’s XCheck list, which gave him superpowers to remove any post.
Meta refuted the claims and said no such privileges are given to any user under XCheck. However, The Wire came up with “evidence” that Malviya reported it, and the post was not even reviewed because a user with XCheck privileges had reported it. They also came up with screenshots of Meta’s communication head Andy Stone’s email, where he was furious that the list and documents were “leaked.”
Questions were raised on the authenticity of the email. The Wire again came up with more evidence, and this time they dropped some tech bombs claiming they got the emails verified and further claimed Andy even opened the emails they had sent to him. However, the claims were refuted not only by Meta but several tech experts who raised questions about the methodology used to validate emails. Also, there was a date error in the screenshot of the emails that were “repaired” by The Wire, allegedly by using Photoshop. That further raised more red flags.
Later, the expert who The Wire claimed to have validated emails said on Twitter that he never validated anything for The Wire. From this point, the whole story crumbled into ashes, and The Wire pulled down all reports related to the so-called investigation down and initiated an internal inquiry.
Meanwhile, The Wire continued to ask for Rs 30 Lakh per month from its donors/readers so that it can continue what it refers to as “journalism”.
