Update on 20/10/2022 at 1:55 pm: Following the publication of this story, a ShareChat spokesperson reached out to MediaNama to clarify a claim made in The Wire's original Tek Fog story that it had reached out to ShareChat for a comment before publishing the story, that was reproduced in this report. "The claim that ShareChat declined to comment or sought time is absolutely false and incorrect," said the spokesperson. "There was no communication between ShareChat and Mr Devesh Kumar / The Wire until after the story had been published. In fact, the authors of the article never contacted the Communications team at ShareChat. These statements, just like the claims made against ShareChat, are fabricated and untrue." Original story, published on 19/10/2022 at 6:00 pm: Following The Wire’s statement that it will review the multiple reporting concerns with its XCheck stories after "suspending" them, Indian social media platform ShareChat has now urged the media house to take down its report implicating it in the sharing of hate speech and misinformation via the alleged “Tek Fog” app. Why it matters: Released in January, The Wire’s three-part exclusive suggested the existence of an app called Tek Fog that was “used by political operatives affiliated with the ruling party to artificially inflate the popularity of the party, harass its critics and manipulate public perceptions at scale across major social media platforms”. The landmark reports, which were co-authored by Ayushman Kaul (Senior Analyst at LogicallyAI) and Devesh Kumar (reporter at The Wire), were also critiqued at the time…
