Tag: blasphemy tweets

10 Things You Need To Know About The Network Targeting Mohammed Zubair

This story has been removed from public view pending the outcome of an internal review by The Wire.

Update (October 27, 2022): This story has been removed from public view pending the outcome of an internal review by The Wire, as one of its authors was part of the technical team involved in our now retracted Meta coverage. More details about the Meta stories may be seen here.

Anonymous Complainant Targeting Zubair Tweet Linked to Tek Fog App, BJYM Leader in Gujarat

This story has been removed from public view pending the outcome of an internal review by The Wire.

‘Assault on Truth’: Journalists, Politicians Mince No Words in Condemning Zubair’s Arrest

Several highlighted the wide disparity between the police’s treatment of personalities who routinely spew hate speech and the way the fact-checker has been taken to task for a 2018 tweet.

New Delhi: Within minutes of news breaking on social media of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s arrest by Delhi Police, condemnation poured in from journalists, opposition politicians, journalists’ organisations both global and national, commentators and consumers of news.

Most highlighted the role played by Zubair and Alt News in tackling disinformation in the last few years. That this made him a direct target of fake news generators was highlighted by the Editors Guild of India in their statement condemning the journalist’s arrest.

Among global bodies who called upon authorities to immediately release Zubair was the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The arrest of journalist Mohammad Zubair marks another low for press freedom in India, where the government has created a hostile and unsafe environment for members of the press reporting on sectarian issues,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C.

“Authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Zubair, and allow him to pursue his journalistic work without further interference.”

The International Press Institute (IPI), a global network of editors, journalists and media executives defending press freedom has also condemned the arrest, calling for Zubair’s release.

DIGIPUB, an organisation of digital news media organisations of which The Wire is a part, has also condemned the arrest, noting that it “firmly stands with Zubair”, and urging the Delhi Police to “immediately” withdraw the case.

The Press Club of India, in addition to calling for his release, has also cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise to uphold freedom of speech at the G-7 meeting.

The fact that Zubair’s arrest came on the same day when  Modi spoke on the 1975 Emergency, called by Indira Gandhi, and vowed as part of the signatories of a G-7 pact to “improve the resilience of democratic societies” was an irony highlighted by many.

Prominent journalists focused on the harm such a move would deal to press freedom.

Hashtags calling for Zubair’s release were widely used by many who pointed out that the work undertaken by him and fact-checkers like him was essential and kept truth at the forefront. The hashtag #IStandWithZubair has by now been tweeted more than 500,000 times.

Aakar Patel, chair of board for Amnesty International India, said that Zubair’s arrest shows that the danger facing human rights defenders in India has reached a crisis point.

“The fact that he was not provided a copy of the FIR and was detained incommunicado during the initial hours following his arrest shows just how brazen the Indian authorities have become. Harassment, intimidation, unlawful and arbitrary arrests, and imprisonment of human rigts defenders for tirelessly seeking truth and justice has become alarmingly commonplace in India,” the statement read.

Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, also tweeted against the arrest. Gandhi’s use of the hashtag #DaroMat led to it trending on Tuesday morning.

MP Shashi Tharoor, like Gandhi, highlighted the “assault on truth” that such an arrest signified.

Congress whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore also demanded an immediate release of the journalist.

Several journalists and politicians highlighted the nature of the purported crime for which Zubair had been made to pay – exposing hate speech.

Several also highlighted the wide disparity between the police’s treatment of personalities who routinely spew hate speech and the way Zubair has been taken to task for a 2018 tweet.

AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi and Trinamool Congress’s Saket Gokhale are among those who asked why Delhi Police is usually one to give a pass to distinctly recognisable hate speech but has been active in arresting the journalist over a five-year-old tweet.

 

 

‘Alt News Resented by Those Who Use Disinformation as Tool’: Editors Guild Urges Zubair’s Release

“It is ironic that Mohammed Zubair’s arrest came on a day when India joined G7 and four other countries to protect free speech, online and offline,” the Press Club of India said.

New Delhi: Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s arrest was condemned by several media bodies, including the Editors Guild of India and the Press Club of India, on June 28, Tuesday.

Noting that it is “apparent that Alt News’s alert vigilance was resented by those who use disinformation as a tool to polarise the society and rake nationalist sentiments,” the Editors Guild of India has condemned the arrest of the fact-checking website’s co-founder Mohammed Zubair.

“In a bizarre turn of events, Zubair was called in for questioning by the special cell of Delhi Police in a case from 2020, for which he already had a protection against arrest from the Delhi High Court. However, when Zubair responded to the summons, he was arrested in relation to a criminal investigation initiated earlier in the month, after an anonymous twitter handle alleged that Zubair’s 2018 post was hurting religious sentiments,” the statement reads.

Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha had tweeted these details in the aftermath of Zubair’s surprise arrest on Monday, June 27.

Social media commentators have since found that the 2018 post that police claimed had hurt religious sentiments was, in fact, the still of a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film.

“Zubair has been arrested under sections 153 and 295 of the Indian Penal Code. This is extremely disturbing because Zubair and his website AltNews have done some exemplary work over the past few years in identifying fake news and countering disinformation campaigns, in a very objective and factual manner,” the statement notes.

It is signed by EGI president Seema Mustafa, general secretary Sanjay Kapoor and treasurer Anant Nath.

The statement then contextualises his renewed presence in the radar of rightwing Twitter.

“In fact it was an exposure of toxic remarks of a ruling party spokesperson on a TV channel that allowed the party to make amends,” the statement says, referring to Zubair’s tweets bringing to light BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s comments against Islam at a national television debate.

After international backlash, BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Naveen Jindal who had tweeted similar comments in defence of Sharma.

“It is apparent that AltNews’ alert vigilance was resented by those who use disinformation as a tool to polarise the society and rake nationalist sentiments,” the EGI noted.

The EGI demanded that Delhi Police immediately release Muhammad Zubair, observing that such a move could help India move closer to promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of G-7 countries.

“We hail all courageous defenders of democratic systems that stand against oppression and violence, and will step up international cooperation to improve the resilience of democratic societies globally,” a joint statement at the meet said.

Condemning the journalist’s arrest by the Delhi Police, the Press Club of India in its statement said, “It is ironic that Mohammed Zubair’s arrest came on a day when India joined G7 and four other countries to protect free speech ‘online and offline’.”

“The action by the Delhi Police in hastily arresting Mohammed Zubair showed the blatant violation of the country’s commitment on the global platform given by none other than the Prime Minister himself,” it noted.

“As a fact-checking site AltNews was acting as an instrument to cut through the jungle of disinformation which was being spread through fake news with an aim to create fissures in the society. Constant vigilance is the price we pay for being vibrant, diverse and largest democracy in the world and AltNews was fulfilling that role. It is sad to know that Mohammed Zubair had to pay the price for vigilance for his uncalled for arrest for a post made in 2018,” the statement read.

It further said that the Delhi Police’s action “defies both the law and common sense” as the action against the journalist was initiated after years without giving notice for a post it believed was “highly provocative.”

The PCI, therefore, demanded the Alt News co-founder be released immediately.

It also condemned the arrest of Teesta Setalvad, whose NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace, litigated cases stemming from the 2002 anti-Muslim massacres in Gujarat, especially the Gulberg Society and Naroda Patiya killings.

Kissi Se Na Kehna! Mohammed Zubair Arrested for Tweeting Photo from 1983 Hindi Film

The AltNews co-founder has also been targeted for ‘Hinduphobic’ tweets which merely mocked statements made by BJP leaders.

New Delhi: Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana must be wishing he knew Bollywood better: it turns out the ‘insulting’ Honeymoon-to-Hanuman hotel signboard photo for which the Delhi Police have arrested Mohammed Zubair – co-founder of fact-checking website AltNews – is from a 1983 Hindi comedy film directed by the legendary Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

Zubair was arrested on Monday under sections 153 (giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 295 (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code. 

According to ANI, the reason given by the police for his arrest is a tweet from 2018, where Zubair tweeted a photograph of the hotel sign.

Zubair’s tweet is from March 24, 2018 and has been up for over four years now. 

The police also said that Zubair’s conduct during the investigation was found “questionable”, warranting his custodial interrogation to “unravel the conspiracy in this matter”.

The Twitter handle which complained to the police has tweeted only once since its apparent inception in October 2021 – the tweet targeting Zubair, published June 19.  

The image of the hotel signboard in the tweet which prompted Delhi Police to arrest Zubair was also used as the lead image in an article in the Indian Express in March 2018, and has received no particular attention from those religiously outraged. 

In fact, as Twitter user @SquareGas pointed out, the image is actually a screenshot from the 1983 Bollywood movie – Kissi Se Na Kehna, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee – duly cleared by the censor board at the time and shown innumerable times on television since then.

Zubair has recently been the target of a concerted campaign to portray him as ‘Hinduphobic’. This happened directly after he drew attention on social media to the video of erstwhile BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma making controversial comments about Prophet Muhammed – comments which caused widespread outrage in India and abroad and eventually led to her party suspending her. 

After Nupur Sharma alleged that Zubair’s reporting was responsible for her receiving threats against her body and life, Zubair also began receiving threats. The hashtag #ArrestMohammedZubair began to trend nationally, and an FIR was filed against him in Uttar Pradesh shortly after for referring to a number of hate-speech disseminating public religious figures as ‘hatemongers’.

However, the more diffuse campaign against him has focused on older satirical tweets being circulated without context, to suggest that Zubair has had a history of tweeting items which are offensive to the Hindu religion. 

The tweet for which Zubair has currently been arrested is part of this satirical series, each of which had a specific context.

1. In September 2018, Zubair posted a picture of a couple of monkeys sitting on a roof beside a BJP flag, with a monkey’s tail covering a banner featuring the face of Narendra Modi. It had the caption, “’Bajrang Bali’ ki aarti karna shuru karo, ‘hanuman chalisa’ ka path karo, bandar kabhi nuksaan nahin pahuchayega.” (Start worshiping Bajrang Bali, start reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, the monkey will never cause you trouble.”

The tweet is now being positioned as an incendiary comment against the Hindu god Hanuman and the BJP whereas it was a riff on a statement made by Yogi Adityanath five days earlier.

The UP chief minister had said, “Mai yahan aaya to mujhse kaha gaya ki yahan par bandar bade pareshan kar rahe hain. Maine kaha ‘Bajrang Bali’ ki aarti karna shuru karo, ‘hanuman chalisa’ ka path karo, bandar kabhi nuksaan nahin pahuchayega,” (When I came here I was told that monkeys trouble people here. I said, start worshipping Bajrang Bali, start reciting the Hanuman Chalisa, monkeys will never cause you trouble.) 

The tweet by Zubair said literally the same thing, and positioned it against the humorous context of the real life monkeys’ dangling their tails over Modi’s photograph. 

2. In April 2018, Zubair posted an edited picture captioned “Sanjay showing Facebook live video of Kurukshetra war of Mahabharat to Dhritrashtra:  Biplab Deb.” 

The satire was clearly aimed at the Tripura CM Biplab Deb, who that very day had made the absurd statement that internet and satellite technology existed in the same time period as the events of the Mahabharata. Several other Twitter humourists ran with the theme, creating meme-images featuring a juxtaposition of technology against mythical imagery, a compilation of which can be seen here. 

3. In April 2018, Zubair quotes a tweet in response to Sambit Patra, who had said “Two easiest ways of escaping Rape law:1) Turn Juvenile 2)Religious Conversion err I mean turn ‘Secular’..#Guide book to perform SAFE-‘RAPE’!” (sic).

In response, Zubair had tweeted: “Dear @sambitswaraj, Easiest way of escaping Rape Law in #RamRajya is to compare it with Lord Ram. Just like #Unnao BJP MLA said, ” मेरे ऊपर तो आरोप लगा है, आरोप तो भगवान राम पर भी लगा था” (An accusation has been made against me, an accusation was made against Lord Ram too!). 

While Hindutva activists now claim this tweet is insulting to the Hindu god Ram, Zubair had merely quoted the BJP MLA in question, who in 2018 had yet to be convicted of the gang-rape of which he had been accused. (He was convicted in 2019, with the court questioning why the CBI had taken a full year to file a chargesheet.) 

In the replies to this tweet from four years ago, Hindutva accounts can be seen to have tagged the Delhi Police earlier this month – five days before the tweet that has caused Zubair’s arrest. 

4. Another tweet being circulated as evidence that Zubair has been making fun of Hinduism is one saying that the satire page he ran called Unofficial Subramanian Swamy was inspired by a poster saying that the Vatican was made in the shape of a Shiv-ling, asking the bizarre question, “Has Vatika become Vatican”,”Christ came from Krishna”  and whether it was “All one big plagiarism from the West”

The irreverence in question was directed at his satire page. 

Posts from the now defunct satire page have been collected and circulated by right wing Twitter users.

One of Zubair’s posts says, “Breaking: Underwater Pushpak Vimana used by Raavan 5000 years ago found in Indian Ocean”, accompanied by an image of an underwater abandoned airplane. Another says, “I demand that Sri Ram (arun govil) be made the Chairman|Director of ISRO or the Dean of IISER. I mean who knows better about rocketry (vimanas) than him.”

The posts follow a similar thematic pattern of sarcastically imitating politicians who situate modern technology amongst ancient Indian artefacts with nonsensically flimsy ‘evidence’ to support their claims – for instance, in 2017, Minister of State for HRD Satya Pal Singh asked “Why are students not taught that before the Wright brothers, an Indian called Shivakar Babuji Talpade was the first to invent the airplane? This person invented the plane eight years before the Wright brothers. Are our students taught these things in IITs or not? They should be.”

Clearly, these so-called ‘Hinduphobic’ posts can all be located within an established tradition of satire – one where the objects of ridicule are politicians in positions of power and the irrationality associated with the retrospective historification of modern technology. The post he was specifically arrested for is particularly bizarre given its antecedents in Bollywood. 

However, the fact that multiple accounts constructed a narrative of ‘Hinduphobia’ around the same time, using tweets which are several years old, suggests the real purpose is to punish Zubair for his role in drawing attention to the hate speech of BJP spokespersons. 

‘Custody for Only 1 Day,’ Delhi Police to Produce Mohammed Zubair Before Magistrate Today

The Alt News co-founder was arrested over a 2018 tweet of a film still which police has claimed has “hurt religious sentiments and promoted enmity.”

New Delhi: Journalist and Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who was arrested by Delhi Police for a 2018 tweet of a film still which allegedly “hurt religious sentiments and promoted enmity,” has been sent to a day’s custody.

He is to be produced before the Burari magistrate today, June 28.

Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha tweeted updates late on Monday, June 27, noting that police sought seven days’ custody.

“The duty magistrate declined to give long custody and allowed custody for only one day,” he tweeted.

Sinha added that half-hour visitation was allowed for lawyers. Zubair was represented by counsels Soutik Banerjee and Kawalpreet Kaur.

Sinha had earlier tweeted asking why police were intent upon producing Zubair before the Burari magistrate late on Monday itself instead of producing him before a regular court the next day, i.e. today, before the end of 24 hours.

Zubair was arrested under Sections 153 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code.

The case is based on a police complaint made after a Twitter handle ‘@balajikijaiin’ – an account with a couple of tweets and zero followers – alleged that Zubair had tweeted a “questionable” image to “deliberately insult the god of a particular religion”. Zubair posted that tweet in March 2018.

Police have claimed in the FIR that they were “alerted” by the Twitter handle.