Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami has been relentlessly running a campaign against the microblogging site Twitter accusing the platform of doing little against users with biases against India. His attack on Twitter gained intensity particularly after the Indian government revoked Article 370 on Jammu and Kashmir. Goswami had also faced widespread mocking after he used Twitter to demand the social media giant to leave India.
Days later, the controversial Indian anchor was again left incensed after the microblogging site gave a clean chit to Pakistani President Arif Alvi for a controversial post on the situation in Kashmir. The Twitter had later informed Alvi that it did not find any violations in his social media post showing the protest in Kashmir.
Starting the debate on the topic, Goswami said this week, “Believe it or not. Twitter has said on record effectively that fake videos on Kashmir do not violate its privacy policy. That’s why we are saying today #TwitterBacksPak.”
Goswami then turned his attention to a guest with Muslim name, daughter of Lt Gen (Retd) Zameeruddin Shah, to post a tweet accusing Twitter of backing Pakistan. Curiously, he did not ask his other non-Muslim guests to do the same.
One guest, identified as Nishant, countered, “All the accounts on Twitter, verified or unverified must be blocked and criminal action must also be taken by various governments because it includes people like Shaina NC (BJP spokesperson), Sambit Patra who have, in the past, put out fake news. It also includes Major (Retd) Gaurav Arya.”
This irked Goswami and his agreeable panelists who reacted angrily to some of the well-known cheerleaders of the Indian government being called out for peddling fake news. Goswami took a dim view of his guests naming Patra and Arya for peddling fake news as he launched a tirade against his own guest. Goswami said, “The biggest peddler of fake news is Nishant. He should apologise on national TV for questioning (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi.”
Apparently, the guest in question had accused Modi of approaching US President Donald Trump seeking his meditation on the thorny issue of Kashmir.
Goswami continued his attack against his guest as he said, “He’s a liar. You take back your words what you said on Narendra Modi. You take back your words.” Goswami then directed one of his agreeable guests to attack his anti-Modi guest saying that he must not be spared.
You can watch the video of the debate here.