DOWN TO THE WIRE

Indian News Outlet Backs Away From Meta Stories After Allegedly False Reports

The Wire said it would conduct an internal review of its Meta sourcing and documents.

Indian news outlet The Wire has backed down from and will review its coverage of Meta that the tech conglomerate decried as outright false. The Wire initially cited internal Meta documents to claim the company gave India’s governing party the ability to remove Instagram posts it did not like through its XCheck program—an accusation Meta’s spokesperson denied in multiple tweets, further alleging that the the purported corroborative documents were fabricated. The Wire stuck to its guns, however, writing a series of follow-up stories that included alleged internal emails from Meta spokesman Andy Stone and another where experts authenticated the documents. However, after both of the cited experts publicly said they were not involved in the process, The Wire backed down, saying they will now conduct “an internal review” of their Meta reporting. “This will include a review of all documents, source material and sources used for our stories on Meta,” the outlet wrote in a statement. Meta declined to further comment.