In an editorial published by The Wire, the media outlet alleged that BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya has privilege to X-Check, enabling him to recover and access pulled-down posts. The recently sparked controversy also deals with the claims that Instagram posts made by Malviya are immediately deleted from the platform. Commenting on the report, Meta disregarded the case, calling it "outlandish and riddled with falsities."
Meanwhile, the co-founder of the news website, Siddharth Varadarajan,, opened up to say that Meta's "fabrication charge" may have been played to "discredit" them.
It all began when the media piece added references from a satirical social media account by discussing how Instagram takes down the post of the stated genre in the case of policy violations. A Twitter page by the profile name "Archive of Cringetopia" was quoted by The Wire. It was pointed out in the report that the username @cringearchivist had seen seven of its posts removed by Instagram in the last few months.
Several journalists, entrepreneurs, and alert netizens have laid down their opinions on the ongoing debate, Meta versus The Wire. From Andy Stone, Communications Director at Meta, to journalists like Aakar Patel, people have taken to Twitter to express their concerns over the alleged "fake" report, emails, and other details involved in the case.
Did Meta personnel, Andy Stone, email the company to scrutinize The Wire?
The Wire report shared a screenshot of an email allegedly drafted by Stone; the copy suggested bringing the journalist behind the article, Jahnavi Sen, along with the co-founder V. Siddharth to be put on a "watchlist". However, the official from Meta denied the stated allegations by claiming it to be a fabricated email document.
Meanwhile, Senior IP & Product Counsel at Mozilla, Daniel Nazer, tweeted over the email and 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."
Meta’s Chief Information Security Officer Guy Rosen joined the debate to point out that there’s no such email address as "internal", and that the address attributed to Stone is no more functional. Rosen wondered if The Wire was a victim of some hoax or propagating it. However, Jeff Horwitz, from the Wall Street Journal, found things reliable and wrote, "Clean pushback from @Meta comms alleging fabricated documents. In my own work, I've found these reliable."
Tech reporter with TIME, Billy Perrigo, tried to sum up the buzz around Meta vs. The Wire by suggesting that "Stone not being forwarded the initial emails from the Wire reporters shows just how systemically Meta stonewalls journalists from the global south," later tweeting that the recent controversial work may finally force them to change the notion.
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