The Congress party has lodged a complaint against BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya for allegedly mocking Rahul Gandhi in a tweet. The case filed in Bengaluru by Congress leader Ramesh Babu alleges that Malviya made a malicious post against senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to deliberately tarnish his image.
“Rahul Gandhi is dangerous and playing an insidious game,” Malviya had said in a tweet sharing an animated video.
Rahul Gandhi is dangerous and playing an insidious game… pic.twitter.com/wYuZijUFAu
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) June 17, 2023
As per the complaint the animated video allegedly features altered versions of Rahul Gandhi's speeches.
Karnataka Minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology Priyank Kharge alleged that Malviya was trying to trigger enmity between groups and spread hatred in society.
The Wire Controversy
Last year, the Wire published several reports claiming that Meta, the parent company of social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, had given special privileges to Amit Malviya through its XCheck program.
The reports claimed that Malviya could take down any content on Meta that he thought was critical of the government or the BJP, and he could post anything without caring about Instagram’s rules.
However, the document on which The Wire based its reports was found to be fake and the news outlet retracted all its claims and reports.
Following this, Malviya said he will file criminal and civil proceedings against the news website accusing it of using “forged documents to malign and tarnish” his reputation.
Defamation Charges
In March this year, Youth Congress national president BV Srinivas filed a case of defamation against Amit Malviya over a controversial tweet. His complaint claimed that comments made by Amit Malviya on social media were based on wrong facts and with malicious intent.
Malviya had tweeted a video of Srinivas, accusing him of making sexist remarks against Union Minister Smriti Irani, The Print reported.
Controversy Over Vote Counting Dates
In 2018, Malviya was accused of leaking the date of Karnataka’s counting day even before the Election Commission made an official announcement
Malviya later claimed that he shared the tweet based on a news flash. Despite getting the dates wrong Malviya faced severe backlash and Election Commission chief OP Rawat said a full investigation will be launched into the matter.
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Editors Guild slams Malviya for ‘offensive’ online poll
After his verbal spat with journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, Amit Malviya on Twitter posted a poll asking if Rajdeep Sardesai should handle PR for ISIS.”
His move was slammed by the Editors Guild of India who called it an “offensive” online poll. The association called for its withdrawal and urged BJP to strongly caution Malviya.
Manipulated Media Tweet
In 2020 Amit Malviya's tweet about the farmers’ protest was labelled as ‘manipulated media’ under Twitter’s guidelines. In his post, Malviya quote-tweeted Rahul Gandhi and went on to claim that the pic shared by the Congress leader on the farmer protests was part of “propaganda”.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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