Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah (Left) and founders of propaganda website, Alt-News Zubair (with spects) and Pratik Sinha (Right) (Image: Twitter)
Within months of commencing office in Karnataka, the Congress-led government plans to set up a ‘fact check unit’ in order to curb misinformation. This comes a day after the state witnessed backlash for its inaction in an intimate videotape scandal. However, to carry out this noble cause, the government chose no one but propagandists, who have a history of spreading misinformation and inciting mobs against individuals.
With two months in office, the Chief Minister of the state, Siddaramaiah, directed the Departments of Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Home Affairs to take action against those who supposedly post fake news.
The bizarre announcement
As per a report published in Kannada newspaper Vijayvani on July 24, the government has decided to take help from the founders of the notorious website ‘Alt News’. The government wishes to curb misinformation, but with those who are known for spreading the same.
“The government will open a separate fact-check unit. It will also take the help of fact-checking agencies like Alt News, Boom Live, E Din, Logical(ly), etc,” the report read.
“There are two types of fake news attacks on social media. One is to defame personally and the other is against the government. Both types of verification will be done here. Action will be taken against such posts if the government is dragged into personal defamation, and the other is to incite communal sentiments by targeting the government as a whole,” it further added.
The website is known for spreading lies and icing mobs against individuals, be it former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, activist Kajal Hindustani, Shefali Vaidya, or others. His regressive tweets have even led to internal security issues, and many have lost their lives, including Kanhaiya Lal and Umesh Kolhe.
The history of misinformation by Alt-news
Most recently, on July 24, one of its founders, Mohammad Zubair, targeted social activists Shefali Vaidya and Rashmi Samant.
Taking screenshots of both the posts by Vaidya and Samant, Zubair wrote on Twitter, “Will @PoliceUdupi take action against these accounts for amplifying misinformation related to Udupi? “
He further added, “Article by @IndiaToday amplifies the misinformation by quoting these Right-wing accounts, Founder @aroonpurie has a fact fact-check team @AFWACheck, associated with International Fact Check Network @factchecknet, Instead of fact-checking these claims, They amplify misinformation.”
Earlier, Following the Ram Navami Shobha Yatra organised on March 30 in the Una city of Gujarat, Islamists call for the beheading of a Hindu activist. This time slogans of ‘Sar Tan se Juda’ were raised against Hindu activist and speaker Kajal Hindustani. Following Kajal’s speech in Delhi Zubair wrote, “Kajal Singla (Kajal Hindustani) says, “Utho Hinduon shastra apne aap uthao, apni raksha apne aap karo”.
Isn’t this provocation to pick up arms? @DelhiPolice “
The video Zubair is referring to is from an event organised in Delhi. In this video, Kajal can be seen saying, “For how long we will play defence.. defence, my Guru taught me that attack is the best defence.
Our target should be clear, these Islamists who raise slogans like, “Lad ke liya tha Pakistan, Has ke lenge Hindustan” and who take the oath of making India an Islamic country by 2047, these are my enemies.”
One of Alt-News’s founders, Pratik Sinha. Sinha was charged with sexual harassment allegations under the very known ‘#MeToo’ movement. The victim shared her story through an Instagram handle in January 2023.
Notably, no action was taken against Sinha by the so-called ‘ethical journalism’ brand Alt-News for that matter or its founder Zubair. After the news broke out he wiped off the social space for a week or so and then returned back to normal. He has been working with Alt-News since then. Not even a clarification note came up from his side.
On April 12, a social media user Arnaz Hathiram whose Twitter bio suggests she is the founder of Voice for Men India, quoted a statement from #MeToo India and wrote, “Hi @IndiaMeToo
Why didn’t you post #PratikSinha #MeToo story?
Your credibility is ZERO when you decide which case is genuine or false”
On July 23, the website shared a cropped video of Kanwariyas pelting stones in Bareilly. In the original video Islamists were pelting stones at a peaceful yatra by Kanwariyas and then the Hindu side retaliated.
As per reports, the incident took place at around 3 pm when Kanwariyas were en route to Budaun to fetch holy water from the river Ganga. The Kanwariya groups were to perform ‘jalabhishek’ at the nearby Vankandinath temple.
In June 2023, he falsely suggested that YouTuber Akshat Shrivastava took money from the Union government to criticise the Congress party. Shrivastava later took to Twitter to call-out Zubair for his ‘half-baked research’ and ‘baseless allegations.’
In March this year, the Delhi High Court framed charges against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Tahir Hussain and 10 others in relation to the murder of an IB officer Ankit Sharma. The same day Zubair supported him.
He wrote on Twitter, “Several social media users have raised doubts about the authenticity of AAP councillor Tahir Hussain’s video appeal for help during #DelhiRiot2020. “
This is just the tip of the iceberg, Zubair and his partner Sinha are sitting over a time bomb with supporters from the left and communists. With this action by the Karnataka government, the state is also becoming a contributor to this machine of misinformation and propaganda.
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