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01/11/2022, 01:22 Delhi Police search ‘The Wire’ office, homes of Siddharth Varadarajan and three other editors
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MEDIA MATTERS
Delhi Police search ‘The Wire’ office,

homes of Siddharth Varadarajan and
three other editors
The searches were conducted in relation to a complaint filed by BJP leader
Amit Malviya, founding editor of the website MK Venu told Scroll.in.
Scroll Staff  
6 hours ago
Updated 2 hours ago
https://scroll.in/latest/1036303/delhi-police-raids-homes-of-the-wire-editors-siddharth-varadarajan-mk-venu-jahnavi-sen 1/8
(From left to right) The Wire editors Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, Jahnavi Sen and Sidharth Bhatia.
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The Delhi Police on Monday carried out searches at the office of The Wire and the
homes of four of its editors – Siddharth Varadarajan, MK Venu, Sidharth Bhatia and
Jahnavi Sen, people familiar with the developments told Scroll.in.
The raids took place two days after a first information report was registered
against the editors on charges of cheating, forgery, defamation and criminal
conspiracy on the basis of a complaint filed by Bharatiya Janata Party social media
chief Amit Malviya.
“The police came around 4.40 pm and left at 6 pm,” Venu told Scroll.in. “They said
they have come here on behalf of Delhi Police Crime Branch for the FIR filed by
Amit Malviya. They have taken my iPhone and iPad for cloning.”
The searches at the homes of Varadarajan and Sen took place around the same
time, they told Scroll.in. The search at Bhatia’s home started around 7.30 pm.
“We are fully cooperating with them,” Varadarajan said. “We have given them the
devices and passwords they asked for. They have taken four devices – one
MacBook, two iPhones and one iPad.”
ANI
@ANI · Follow
Delhi: Visuals from outside the residence of 'The Wire'

founder Siddharth Varadarajan where Delhi Police crime
Branch searches are underway.
7:09 PM · Oct 31, 2022
5K Reply Copy link
Read 123 replies
Venu also said that a lawyer representing the editors has gone to the Crime Branch
office of Delhi Police to ensure that only materials related to the case are cloned
from the seized devices.
A staff member of The Wire who was at its office during the search told Scroll.in
that more than 20 officials were part of the operation which went on till 9.45 pm.
“They seized iMacs and asked those present at the office for passwords of their
devices,” he said.
Officials of the Delhi Police said that no notices were issued to the four editors on
Monday and no inquiry was carried out, ANI reported. “Further investigation is
going on and necessary steps will be taken.”
Malviya’s complaint relates to a series of articles about social media company Meta
that The Wire retracted on October 23.
The Wire had claimed that Malviya, who heads the social media cell of the saffron
party, had special privileges through an Instagram programme called X-Check that
ensured that any posts he reports are removed from the platform immediately,
with “no questions asked”.
Meta is the parent firm of Instagram.
On its part, The Wire has claimed that it had been deceived by a member of its
investigative team. On October 29, the digital publication filed a police complaint
against researcher Devesh Kumar, who had worked on the Meta articles, claiming
that he “fabricated and supplied documents, emails and other material such as
videos with a view to damaging The Wire and its reputation.”
Purpose to create chilling effect, says digital news body

The Digipub News India Foundation, an 11-member digital-only news association,
said that “immediate and arbitrary search” based on a complaint filed by a
spokesperson of the ruling BJP “smacks of malafide intentions”.
The purpose of the searches was to create a chilling effect against journalism in
India, Digipub said in a statement.
“Moreover the danger of these searches being used as an excuse to seize and
duplicate confidential and sensitive data held by The Wire cannot be dismissed,”
the news websites’ the statement noted.
However, it added that a media organisation should be held accountable by its

peers and the civil society for publishing a false report.
The association also expressed concerns that the investigation could become “a tool
to further worsen the already fraught state of journalism in India”.
Scroll.in is among the founding members of the association.
DIGIPUB News India Foundation

@DigipubIndia · Follow
DIGIPUB's statement on police searches on the homes of

th dit d t f @th i i
the editors and a reporter of @thewire_in
9:54 PM · Oct 31, 2022
241 Reply Copy link
Read 30 replies
‘The Wire’ vs Meta controversy

The controversy started after on October 6, The Wire said that Instagram had
deleted a satirical post showing a man worshipping a statue of Uttar Pradesh Chief
Minister Adityanath for violating the platform’s guidelines on “nudity and sexual
content” even though the image did not depict any nudity.
The publication followed this up with a report on October 10 claiming that the post
was taken down after a complaint by Malviya, the head of the BJP’s social media
cell. The Wire report claimed that Malviya has special privileges through an
Instagram programme called X-Check that ensures that any posts he reports are
removed from the platform immediately, with “no questions asked”, even if they do
not violate Meta’s rules.
On October 11, Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, said that The Wire’s
report was based on false information. He said that X-Check system had “nothing to
do with the ability to report posts”.
He also said that “posts in question were surfaced for review by automated
systems, not humans” and that an internal report of Instagram cited by The Wire’s
source “appears to be fabricated”.
Defending its report, The Wire published another article on October 11, with an
image of an email allegedly sent by Stone on October 11 in which he rebuked some
of his colleagues, asking them how the internal Instagram report “got leaked” and
seeking more information on the matter.
The report also claimed that Stone had asked his colleagues to put Varadarajan and
Sen on a “watchlist”.
Meta’s Chief Information Security Officer Guy Rosen claimed that the email, too,
was fake.
After this, The Wire on October 15 said it had verified Stone’s email and produced
more technical evidence to support its claims. But this was met with scepticism
from technical experts.
The news website had also published an explanation of the technical process that it
had followed while writing the articles, which cited redacted emails from two
cybersecurity experts. However, both the experts later denied having been part of
the process.
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Siddharth Varadarajan MK Venu Amit Malviya The Wire Meta
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01/11/2022, 01:22 Delhi Police search ‘The Wire’ office, homes of Siddharth Varadarajan and three other editors

Support Scroll.in Contribute Now

Tuesday, November 1st 2022

Delhi Police search ‘The Wire’ office,

Delhi: Visuals from outside the residence of 'The Wire'

7:09 PM · Oct 31, 2022

5K Reply Copy link

Read 123 replies

Meta is the parent firm of Instagram.

Purpose to create chilling effect, says digital news body

However, it added that a media organisation should be held accountable by its

Scroll.in is among the founding members of the association.

DIGIPUB News India Foundation

DIGIPUB's statement on police searches on the homes of

9:54 PM · Oct 31, 2022

241 Reply Copy link

‘The Wire’ vs Meta controversy

We request you to support our award-winning journalism by making a

₹1000 ₹2500 ₹5000 Other

We welcome your comments at

Siddharth Varadarajan MK Venu Amit Malviya The Wire Meta

‘Fabricated e-mails’: What The Wire’s police

complaint says about researcher’s alleged

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