Slammed by Meta, The Wire retracts reports citing discrepancies

NEW DELHI: Hit hard by Meta (formerly Facebook) for publishing inaccurate and fake reports about its content moderation decisions, The Wire publication on Sunday said it is retracting those reports citing "certain discrepancies".

The publication said that "lapses in editorial oversight are also being reviewed, as are editorial roles, so that failsafe protocols are put in place ensuring the accuracy of all source-based reporting".

"Our investigation, which is ongoing, does not as yet allow us to take a conclusive view about the authenticity and bona fides of the sources with whom a member of our reporting team says he has been in touch over an extended period of time," The Wire said in a post.

Meta earlier said that while it is legitimate for them to be held accountable for their content decisions, "the allegations made by The Wire are false" and the screenshots of two emails from a Meta employee used in the story are "fake".

The company had said that they accept scrutiny of their content decisions, "but we fundamentally reject these false allegations based on what we believe to be fabricated evidence. We hope that The Wire is the victim of this hoax, not the perpetrator".

The Wire said in its statement 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 purportedly received from Ujjwal Kumar (an expert cited in the reporting as having endorsed one of the findings, but who has, in fact, categorically denied sending such an email). As a result, The Wire believes it is appropriate to retract the stories," the news publication elaborated.

The Wire said it is working with independent security experts in its ongoing investigation.

"Given the discrepancies that have come to our attention via our review so far, The Wire will also conduct a thorough review of previous reporting done by the technical team involved in our Meta coverage, and remove the stories from public view till that process is complete," the publication noted.

Meta Chief Information Security Officer Guy Rosen had also slammed The Wire for publishing fake stories, which, according to Rosen, were "outlandish and riddled with falsities".

According to the company, the video shared by The Wire, which purportedly shows an internal Instagram system, appears to have been "set up specifically in order to manufacture evidence to support The Wire's inaccurate reporting".