October 27, 2022 – Indian news outlet The Wire, which published and later retracted a series of investigative reports on Facebook-parent Meta, has apologised citing “deception” by a staff member involved in the contentious reporting.
The controversial stories were officially retracted last week and a review of the entire Meta investigation was announced by the publication.
“Had we done this [verification] before publication rather than after the fact, this would have ensured that the deception to which we were subjected by a member of our Meta investigation team* was spotted in time,” says Wire in its latest statement.
The publication is also conducting a comprehensive review of the internal editorial processes that led to the publication of the disputed Meta stories, it adds.
“The Wire acknowledges that the internal editorial processes which preceded publication of these stories did not meet the standards that The Wire sets for itself and its readers expect from it,” the statement reads. “To have rushed to publish a story we believed was reliable without having the associated technical evidence vetted independently is a failure of which we cannot permit repetition.”
“This combination of not fully grasping the complexities of technology and a slippage in editorial assessment of tech-related matter resulted in the publication of stories which did not eventually hold up. For this we owe an apology to our readers.”
The controversial stories surrounded claims about Meta’s “XCheck” programme which, according to the news outlet, granted content moderation privileges to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Malviya on Instagram. The stories alleged Meta exempted Malviya from the company’s enforcement rules and the posts reported by him were taken down without any review.
Wire suspended its reporting after questions mounted on the authenticity of certain pieces of evidence cited in the investigation.
Wire’s evidence included an internal document related to the ‘XCheck’ programme and a screenshot the publication claimed Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, had sent to his team inquiring how the XCheck document was leaked. Both pieces of evidence attracted significant scrutiny from industry experts, who pointed out several discrepancies and questioned the credibility of Wire’s sources.
The controversy gained widespread attention, making it to the headlines of several international news publications.
For a complete breakdown of Meta vs The Wire controversy, watch this explainer.
