Amit Malviya to file criminal, civil proceedings against The Wire

New Delhi, Oct 27: Bharatiya Janata Party social media cell chief Amit Malviya said on Thursday that he will file civil and criminal cases against news website The Wire for an article claiming that he holds special privileges to take down Instagram posts.

On Sunday, The Wire in a series of news reports, now retracted the article had published about Meta, the parent company of social media giants -- WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram --had alleged that BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya had special privileges that enable him to get posts removed from its platforms as reported by news agency PTI.

However, the Meta denied the allegations made by the news website. Meta's director for policy communications, Andy Stone, in a tweet said, "The posts in question were surfaced for review by automated systems, not humans. And the underlying documentation appears to be fabricated."

Taking to micro-blogging platform, Malviya wrote,''After consultation with my lawyers and seeking their advise, I have decided to file criminal and civil proceedings against 'The Wire.' Not only will I be setting the criminal process in motion but I will also sue them in civil court seeking damages as they forged documents with a view to malign and tarnish my reputation.''

On Thursday morning, The Wire issued an apology for publishing the news articles and claimed that it had been deceived by a member of its investigative team.

''Technological evidence is more complicated and the usual due diligence may not always reveal the fraud perpetrated upon a publication. This is what happened to us,'' it said.

Under scrutiny, including from some experts, over the reports, The Wire also apologised to its readers for slippage in its editorial assessment.

''This combination of not fully grasping the complexities of technology and a slippage in editorial assessment of tech-related matter resulted in the publication of stories which did not eventually hold up. For this we owe an apology to our readers,'' the news portal said.

In the fresh statement, The Wire said, ''In the life of any publication, an occasion may come when it is misinformed. The moral test is whether the publication persists or speaks the truth. We chose the latter when we realised we had been given fraudulent information.''

''Whether the person who brought all the material to The Wire deceived us at anyone' else's behest or acted on his own is a matter that will be subjected to judicial process in due course,'' the portal said. ''The malintent to discredit The Wire is obvious. Other than this, we have nothing to say,'' the statement said.