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How ‘The Hindu’ Supported Fake News & Misinfo Spreader Account Hindutva Watch After X Took Down The Account

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On 27 January 2024, an article appeared in The Hindu newspaper titled, ‘Blocking of Hindutva Watch and prevalence of social media censorship in India‘ penned by the senior sub-editor of the newspaper, Aaratrika Bhaumik. The article discusses how X, a social media platform, has complied with the Indian government’s orders to block accounts and tweets that are critical of its policies or actions. The article also explains the provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Rules that empower the government to issue blocking orders, and the lack of transparency and due process in the censorship regime. It highlights the cases of Hindutva Watch, Saurav Das, Tanul Thakur and others who have faced censorship on X and the implications for their work and expression. In retaliation to the claims made in the article, an X user, going by the username @thehawkeyex posted a rebuttal thread pointing out how the Hindutva Watch (HW) handle had spread fake news and misinformation freely.

On 22 May 2023, the HW handle posted on X said an old mosque was demolished by the Gujarat administration at Dahod, Junagadh for a smart city project. However, the post fails to mention that four old temples were also demolished along with the mosque to make way for the project. Additionally, the masjid also failed to produce necessary land documents in the court for proof of ownership.

On 20 Feb 2024, the HW handle posted an ‘untold story of Jammu massacre’ which claimed 6,00,000 Muslims were murdered in 7 days. However, the photo used for the story was that of the aftermath of devastating riots in Kolkata that happened in 1946.

In October 2023, the HW website reported a story stating, ‘Jeevan Jyoti church demolished citing “illegal construction on government land”’. However, the truth was far from it. The demolition was a planned removal drive with prior notice given to the church administration. Despite this, the government team was attacked by goons.

In September 2023, the HW website again posted misleading news stating that in Uttarakhand a Muslim youth was beaten, head shaved, and face blacked for an alleged interfaith relationship. The truth in this case was the man was accused of rape and hence the punishment was given to him by the community.

In December 2022, the X handle of HW again posted fake news stating that Muslim residents in the Gulmohar colony in Ujjain, UP were asked to vacate to give way for the Kumbh Mela festival to be held in 2028. However, the truth in this case was that the government has been requesting the people to vacate for a long time for multiple road expansion projects which included three Hindu colonies as well.

D-Intent data, a news data research organisation focuses on neutral fact checking and intent analysis, has flagged fifteen ‘news articles’ posted by HW as fake/misleading news articles.

In June 2023, the HW website was booked by the Maharashtra police for, ‘spreading fake news, defaming Hindus, and inciting mob’ during Kolhapur violence.

The user also alleges that the HW founder is a Kashmiri separatist named, Raquib Hamid Naik residing in the USA and colludes with Pakistanis. The technical backend of the site is managed by Adil Kayani who ran a “free Kashmir” campaign and also runs a propaganda website for setting anti-India narratives and secessionist ideologies.

The user further alleges that the co-founder Naik was working as director for the Two Circles Network (TCN) which was founded by Kashif Ul Huda, a terrorist organisation SIMI and Zakir Naik sympathizer.

Furthermore, there was a similar-named HW account on Reddit, which was banned due to hate content policy violation.

 

(With inputs from The Hawk Eye)

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