Wire has withdrawn its reports on Meta after discovering “certain discrepancies” in its news stories, the Indian newspaper said on Sunday, marking what should end for the series. TV series famous for its social juggling attracted the attention of newsrooms and technology companies around the globe for two weeks.
The move follows Wire, a small but intrepid Indian newspaper, which set up an internal review process to evaluate their reporting earlier this week after Meta, the subject of the original story, and other sources. Independent sources on which they relied vehemently denied the newsroom’s reports.
“Our investigation, which is ongoing, has not yet allowed us to have a conclusive view of the veracity and authenticity of the sources that a member of our reporting team said he had contact for a long period of time,” Wire said in a statement.
Wire reported earlier this month that Meta had given unregulated BJP’s top digital regulator the ability to remove content from Instagram and carry out a series of stalking, insisting Meta was dishonest. in publicly denying the report. In one of the stories, Wire cites what it claims is an internal email from Meta to Andy Stone. On the other hand, it cites testimony from independent security researchers who verified the authenticity of Stone’s emails to Wire. (Both Meta and the security researchers refuted the reports.)
The Indian news organization said on Sunday that “certain discrepancies have emerged in the material used.”
“These include the inability of our investigators to authenticate both the email purportedly sent from a*****@fb.com as well as the email allegedly received from Ujjwal Kumar ( one expert is cited in the report as confirming one of the findings, but in fact, who declined to send such an email). Therefore, The Wire believes that retracting the story is appropriate. “
Pamela Philipose, inspector at Wire, severe lapse report at Wire’s report on Saturday. She writes:
However, The Wire’s story failed certain basic tests, not least in terms of citing sources. Many of these sources either don’t follow The Wire, or are misunderstood, or misquoted, or may have second thoughts. As they publicly distanced themselves from the investigation, it began to tilt alarmingly like a chair stripped of a few legs.
Rebuttals, if they are to be effective, must be convincing. Despite The Wire’s efforts to echo and reiterate the credibility of its accounts, and cite evidence that has withstood scrutiny from peers, things seem to be moving at a pace beyond their control. away from any attempt to regulate public perception. Doubts about the authenticity of the Andy Stone email are a case in point as it also lacks thorough scrutiny of what the power of XCheck really is.
In the end, there were serious missteps in the firefight that The Wire did as contradictory evidence piled up.
Wire said it is working with independent security experts on the ongoing investigation. Meanwhile, it appears they have taken some action against Devesh Kumar, one of their reporters who worked on the story and was key to verifying the sources and documents they provided.
