On 10 October 2022, leftist-Islamist propaganda outlet The Wire had published a story in which it alleged that BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya can get any social media post on Facebook or Instagram taken down because Meta had given him special privileges.
“The company has given Malviya two levels of privileges – he can post as he likes, without the rules governing the platform applying to him, and he can impose his will as he pleases to have posts critical of the BJP, the Union government, or right-wing Hindu politics, deleted.”, The Wire’s story had alleged.
However, this story was categorically refuted by Meta’s head of communications Andy Stone and stated that the story was based on fabricated documents.
Where to even begin with this story?! X-check has nothing to do with the ability to report posts. The posts in question were surfaced for review by automated systems, not humans. And the underlying documentation appears to be fabricated.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) October 11, 2022
Despite Meta calling The Wire out, the propaganda outlet went ahead publishing one more story on 11 October 2022 in an attempt to establish that the documents they have were not fabricated.
To support their story, The Wire had shared a screenshot of a mail supposedly sent by Andy Stone in which he is upset that an internal document has been leaked to them.
The Wire in its follow-up to the earlier story said thus: “In his internal email, Stone demanded an “activity report for the document for last one month” – presumably in order to identify the source of the leak – and also asked why the reporter on the story was not on Meta’s “watchlist”. He said that the reporter and The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan must immediately be added to this “watchlist”, so that “any communication to them from our staff… is directly reported to me”.
However, Guy Rosen, Meta’s Chief Information Security Officer cleared the air stating that The Wire’s report doesn’t hold water and was entire based on forged documents.
In a detailed thread, Guy Rosen stated that the stories are simply incorrect about the cross-check program. He noted that it was built to prevent potential over-enforcement mistakes and that it has nothing to do with the ability to report posts, as alleged in the article.
“In its October 10 story, @thewire_in links to a supposed internal report about the incident in question. It appears to be a fabrication. The URL on that “report” is one that’s not in use. The naming convention is one we don’t use. There is no such report.” he said.
He also stated that the email address of Andy Stone mentioned in the October 11 story, is fake.
“The supposed email address from which it was sent isn’t even Stone’s current email address, and the “to” address isn’t one we use here either. There is no such email.”, Guy Rosen said.
He also noted that there is not “watchlist” of journalists as alleged in The Wire article.
“These accusations are outlandish and riddled with falsities. Let’s hope @thewire_in is the victim not the perpetrator of this hoax.”, he said.
I wanted to set the record straight about two stories run this week by @thewire_in with untrue claims about Meta’s content moderation operations and processes. tl;dr these stories are fabrications. (1/6)
— Guy Rosen (@guyro) October 11, 2022
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