Ever since propaganda outlet The Wire claimed to have an expose on the “relationship” between India’s ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Facebook’s parent company Meta, social media is buzzing with comments from both sides. Apart from the to-and-fro comments from the companies’ representatives, a lot of journalists, technology experts, and above all the so-called liberal cabal has expressed their concerns over the genuineness of The Wire’s story.
Questions about the language of the email
First of all, let’s discuss the retweets done by Andy Stone, the Communication Head at Meta. The most interesting retweet that we noticed during the whole fiasco was from former Amnesty India head and propagandist activist Aakar Patel, who is known for his anti-BJP stand. In replying to Jahnavi Sen, Aakar Patel looked down upon the language of the email that The Wire claimed was sent by Andy and said how the language and punctuation in the mail was unusual and ‘sounded desi’.
The typical colonial hangover suggested that emails were forged by an Indian because only they would use such language, thereby insinuating that the Americans have better grip over English.
Earlier, OpIndia reported that Meta’s Chief Information Security Officer Guy Rosen had dismissed the claims made by The Wire in a series of Tweets. Following rebuttals by two senior executives at Meta, more speculations were raised against the report.
In all that it is worth, there are a lot of speculations over the style of language claimed to have been used by Andy in the email. The native English speakers are brazened out over the language and have “confidently” said that Andy could not have written the email. Daniel Nazer, Senior IP & Product Counsel at Mozilla, while replying to Systems & Network Security Engineering Alec Muffett, who pointed out “bad English”, said, “It’s really sad to see them fall, and double down, for such an obvious fake. We need strong independent media willing to stand up to populist governments and big companies, but this ain’t it.”
It’s really sad to see them fall, and double down, for such an obvious fake. We need strong independent media willing to stand up to populist governments and big companies, but this ain’t it.
— Daniel Nazer (@danielnazer) October 11, 2022
While Nazer wants to have a ‘strong independent media’, he looked unconvinced with The Wire’s story.
The curious case of the ‘like button’ in the email
In one of the screenshots shared by The Wire in its reports, they claimed that Andy lashed out at his team for the “leak” and asked for putting Jahnavi and The Wire’s founder Siddharth on the watchlist. Apart from the easily notable “spelling errors” in the name of The Wire’s founder and weird sentence formation, there is one aspect of the screenshot that caught the eye of the experts.
You’re right. The alignment of the like button is off. Curioser and curioser.
— Nikhil Pahwa (@nixxin) October 11, 2022
Hetal Rach, while replying to a tweet by Medianama founder Nikhil Pahwa, pointed out that the alignment of the like button was off in the screenshot. He also raised speculations over what a like button was doing anyway in emails! Rach said, “IMO, someone’s playing with wire folks. Names as hyperlinks (which likely happens via auto-complete, but why??) and then a typo in the name? Alignment of the like (like on email??) button is also wrong.”
Maybe it was a Facebook thing, but who knows… The alignment is indeed off, and Pahwa also agreed to that. He said, “You’re right. The alignment of the like button is off. Curioser and curioser.”
When we detached the like button and straightened the screenshot, the like button got even more displaced. Things just do not add up here from any point of view.
OpIndia tried to check if what happens to Like button if we detach it and straighten the screenshot. As one can see, the ‘like’ button on top right corner of the screenshot is strangely aligned. It is likely that the confirmation bias that The Wire had did not allow them to see such glaring discrepancies.
What can be expected from Meta?
One of the easiest ways to debunk the screenshots at least is by publishing at least one screenshot of the emails Andy sends from his official email ID. Of course, the content can be hidden, but the curiosity over the ‘like button’ in the email will at least have some rest.
The story is expected to develop further as TMC leader Derek O’Brien has jumped into the controversy and announced he would raise the issue during the winter session. Not to forget, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are expected to have Assembly elections in November and December this year.
Will take this up in the winter session of #Parliament in November. We must. Keep fighting the good fight
— Derek O’Brien | ডেরেক ও’ব্রায়েন (@derekobrienmp) October 11, 2022
In a way, the winter session is again going to be all about shouting and raising slogans and not letting the house do its job, just like it happened in the case of Rafale and “Tek Fog”. This makes one wonder if The Wire conjured up Meta hoax to create a background for ‘BJP controls Big Tech’ for Congress and others to play around with when BJP sweeps the upcoming polls.
