A controversy erupted earlier today when news agency PTI accused ANI of stealing its intellectual property and posting its photos and videos without providing due credit.
The matter pertains to a video shared by ANI on 30 May 2024 at 10 PM. The video was from an awards ceremony, with Major Radhika Sen receiving the prestigious 2023 UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award.
#WATCH | Major Radhika Sen of the Indian Army has been awarded the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award for the year 2023. This accolade recognises her outstanding contributions to promoting gender equality and women's empowerment in United… pic.twitter.com/9L7ipKYf9e
— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2024
The same video, without the ANI logo, and other pictures from the awards ceremony were also shared by the official X account of the Indian Army minutes after the ANI’s post.
Hours after ANI posted the video, PTI accused ANI of sharing its intellectual property without authorisation.
This video is PTI property and has been used without authorisation. @PTI_News https://t.co/NF2VOfT6uN
— Yoshita Singh योषिता सिंह (@Yoshita_Singh) May 31, 2024
However, this was enough for self-described ‘fact-checker’ Mohammed Zubair to train his guns on ANI and target the news agency with false allegations.
Mohammed Zubair targets ANI over the video, falsely claims ANI picked up video from the Indian Army handle
Peddling disinformation, dog-whistling against assertive Hindu voices, spreading lies, and targeting entities that don’t share his pathological hatred towards the BJP and PM Modi have long been the forte of Mohammed Zubair. Therefore, when controversy erupted over a video of awards bestowed upon Army personnel at the United Nations Headquarters posted by ANI with claims that it was an intellectual property of PTI, Zubair quickly pounced to target ANI, claiming that ANI picked up the video from the Indian Army handle without giving credits to PTI, without verifying his claims with either the ANI or the Indian Army.
“The Army shares images and Video with credits to PTI. @smitaprakash’s ANI picks up the video from the Indian Army Handle, Adds the ANI logo to the video and shares it without giving credit to PTI. This is just one example, They’ve been doing this for years. Many videos from PMO have ANI watermarks,” Zubair tweeted.
It is hilarious that Zubair claims ANI “picked up” the video from the Indian Army handle even though ANI posted the video well before the Indian Army shared it on X, formerly Twitter. ANI’s tweet was posted at 10:00 PM while the Indian Army shared the video 28 minutes later at 10:28 PM.
As allegations of publishing content got levelled against ANI, the news agency rubbished them and revealed that it got the video from the Army. In a fresh tweet quoting the video, ANI posted a screenshot of a WhatsApp chat with a person, presumably an Army officer, who had sent pictures and videos from the event to an ANI news reporter.
“All videos and pictures of the above event were provided to ANI officially by the Indian Army for further syndication (no additional attribution instructions provided),” ANI tweeted.
All videos and pictures of the above event were provided to ANI officially by the Indian Army for further syndication (no additional attribution instructions provided) https://t.co/yLVQJ5GqXb pic.twitter.com/WZoQ69MHHr
— ANI (@ANI) May 31, 2024
Meanwhile, as controversy erupted, the Indian Army posted a tweet crediting PTI for photos and the video at 1:06 PM on 31 May 2024. It may be noted that the Indian Army credited PTI hours after it had shared the pictures on its X page and not in the original post, which means that the Army was perhaps not aware of PTI having their rights.
Indian Army credits PTI hours after posting the video and pictures on SM; admits they had shared them with media outlets, including ANI
Nevertheless, as the controversy escalated further, the official X account of the Indian Army posted a new tweet, almost 19 hours after posting the pictures and the video, clarifying the disinformation being peddled online over the matter.
The Indian Army admitted to having received the photos and the video from the awardee officer on the evening of 30 May 2024. The Army further added that the pictures and the videos were shared with all media houses, including ANI, besides being put out on its social media platforms. The Army also said that when it learnt that photos and video were provided to the awardee officer by PTI, due credits were given to PTI.
CLARIFICATION ON CREDITS FOR PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEO
— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) May 31, 2024
The Photos and Video of the Award Ceremony at UN Headquarters were received from the awardee officer in the evening on 30 May 24.
These Photos and Video were put out by @adgpi on Social Media platforms, including X. At the…
As evident from the above tweet, the Army admits to being unaware that the photos and the video were provided to the awardee officer by PTI at the time of sharing them online. The Army posted the pictures and the video originally at 10:28 PM on 30 May 2024 without crediting PTI. The Army credited PTI only several hours later, at 1:06 PM today, presumably after learning that the video and the pictures were provided to the awardee officer by PTI. Therefore, Zubair is lying when he claims that the Army shared images and a video with credits to PTI. Hence, it can be concluded that when ANI posted it at 10 pm yesterday, it was not aware the video was owned by PTI and posted it as a clip provided by the Army.
