The Wire is retracting its coverage on Meta after almost three weeks of growing tension. The nonprofit journal said on Sunday that it had identified “some anomalies” in the information that had inspired its reporting on the social media behemoth since October 6th. “The Wire feels it is appropriate to withdraw the reports,” the site claimed, citing the inability to verify two emails key to its prior coverage of Meta. One of the emails The Wire stated it couldn’t confirm included a statement ascribed to Meta spokesman Andy Stone.
Prior to the correction on Sunday, The Wire claimed Meta provided Amit Malviya, an information technology executive with India’s governing BJP party, the authority to erase postings from Instagram, something Meta has continuously denied. Rather than back down after the company issued a comprehensive rebuttal on October 12th, The Wire continued to publish stories claiming Meta was misleading the public, culminating in an October 15th article featuring a screen recording the outlet claimed showed proof of the original takedown request that sparked the entire saga. One day later, Meta said that an internal inquiry discovered the video revealed a Workspace account formed on October 13th, implying that the account was created to back up The Wire’s claim.
Despite the uproar, Instagram finally republished the post that sparked The Wire’s investigation in the first place.
