Karnataka Congress govt to hunt assist from Alt News to battle ‘faux information’

The Congress-led authorities in Karnataka is organising a ‘fact check unit’ to fight ‘misinformation’ with the assistance of infamous faux information peddlers corresponding to Alt News.

Within two months of forming the federal government, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah directed the Departments of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Home Affairs to take motion towards those that supposedly put up faux information.

As per a report revealed by the Kannada newspaper Vijayvani on Monday (July 24), the Karnataka authorities will search assist from doubtful fact-checking portal ‘Alt News’ to battle misinformation.

Screengrab of the information report by Vijayvani

“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 learn.

“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 additional added.

Earlier in June, Congress MLA Priyank Kharge publicly displayed his camaraderie with Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair by referring to the latter as ‘chief.’ Interestingly, Kharge heads the identical IT and biotechnology Departments, which are actually entrusted to arrange the ‘fact-checking unit.’

Will do Chief

— Priyank Kharge / ಪ್ರಿಯಾಂಕ್ ಖರ್ಗೆ (@PriyankKharge) June 16, 2023

This has led to speculations by netizens that the Karnataka Congress authorities is mulling to monetarily profit Alt News by availing its companies utilizing taxpayer’s cash.

In a tweet on Monday (July 24), common Twitter person ‘Mr Sinha’ wrote, “So Karanataka govt is planning to build a system to punish “fake news peddlers” with the assistance of Fault information. It’s identical as US becoming a member of fingers with Pakistan to regulate Terrorism.”

“On a serious note, it seems like INC Priyank Kharge is planning to reward them using govt’s fund in the name of fact-checking,” he emphasised.

Screengrab of the tweet by Mr Sinha
Alt News and its infamous historical past of spreading faux information

The ‘fact checking’ portal, run by Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair, has disseminated and amplified faux information on a number of cases. This is with out accounting for the quite a few lies peddled by the founders of the Alt News themselves.

For occasion, on Sunday (July 23), Zubair shared a cropped video of Kanwariyas pelting stones in Bareilly to cover the truth that it was carried out in retaliation of an unproved assault by Islamists. By shrewdly avoiding the context of the video, he thus insinuated that it was someway a ‘free-for-all’ case of stone pelting.

In June this yr, he falsely steered that YouTuber Akshat Shrivastava took cash from the Union authorities to criticise the Congress get together. Shrivastava later took to Twitter to lambast Zubair for his ‘half-baked research’ and ‘baseless allegations.’

Doing half baked analysis. And, hurling baseless accusations has develop into a style.

I had already launched a video on sixteenth May on my YouTube channel, the place I had talked concerning the Freebie tradition in context of Karnataka elections. The video continues to be there- you possibly can go & test.… pic.twitter.com/ZiaKDrtaxe

— Akshat Shrivastava (@Akshat_World) June 26, 2023

A month earlier, Alt News co-founder and his lackey shared a cropped video to falsely declare that BJP Tamil Nadu chief, Annamalai, claimed credit score for CSK’s win within the Indian Premier League.

Zubair had additionally used misinformation to focus on the BJP over the inauguration of the brand new Parliament constructing. The ‘ignorant’ fact-checker made it clear that he didn’t know the distinction between the ‘foundation’ and ‘inauguration’ of a construction.

Alt News additionally tried to protect Congress staff, who had been allegedly heard elevating ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ slogans. Initially, he had claimed that there was no contentious sloganeering however later claimed that the proof was inconclusive.

I spoke to Police Inspector Mr. Dayanand from Belagavi, He says, They haven’t concluded if the slogans raised had been “Pakistan Zindabad” OR “Asif (Raju) Sait Zindabad”. They are sending the viral video to FLS for additional investigation. https://t.co/LZOCxouhYB

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) May 13, 2023

It nearly appeared like Zubair knew his assertions had been busted. However, to save lots of face, he claimed that he spoke to Inspector Dayanand for Belagavi, who mentioned that that they had not confirmed but whether or not the slogans had been Pakistan Zindabad or Asif Sait Zindabad.

His frequent lies have been the fodder for Islamists each in India and overseas. On 14 June 2021, Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair took to Twitter to assert that an aged Muslim man, Abdul Samad Saifi, in Ghaziabad was assaulted and compelled to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

The disinformation was shared lately by Majid Freeman, the Islamist who has been notorious for fanning the anti-Hindu violence within the United Kingdom’s Leicester in 2022. Despite such a historical past of peddling faux information, the Congress authorities has now determined to onboard ‘Alt News’ in its ‘fact check unit.’