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OpIndia is an Indian right-wing news portal which claims to be a fact-checking website. In May 2019, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) rejected OpIndia's application to be accredited as a fact-checker on grounds of political partisanism and poor fact-checking methodologies; AltNews et al. document the site to have propagated fake news on multiple occasions.

History

OpIndia was founded in 2014 by Rahul Raj and Kumar Kamal as a current affairs and news website. In October 2016, it was acquired by Kovai Media Private Limited, a Coimbatore-based company of T. V. Mohandas Pai, that also owns the right-leaning magazine Swarajya.

Later, it was disassociated from the group and became a separate entity; Nupur J Sharma is the current editor.

Content

OpIndia has accused multiple prominent media outlets — The Wall Street Journal, India Today, Scroll.in, The Wire and others of spreading fake news and leftist propaganda. The portal claims to have a policy of no-partisanship for fact-checking; Sharma has though clarified that they do not claim to be ideologically neutral otherwise and are openly right leaning.

Reception

In May 2019, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), an affiliate of the Poynter Institute, rejected OpIndia's application to be accredited as a fact-checker. While noting partial compliance on a number of categories, the IFCN expressed concerns over partisanship, a lack of clear corrections policy, and questioned OpIndia's use of speeches to counter claims The rejection disqualified OpIndia for fact-checking contracts with web properties owned by Facebook and Google.

IFCN certified fact-checkers AltNews and Boom (among others) document the site to have propagated fake news on multiple occasions.

A January 2020 report by the media watchdog Newslaundry noted the portal to contain several inflammatory headlines targeting the leftists, liberals and Muslims. Mainstream media and the political opposition (esp. Indian National Congress) were oft-criticized; posts published by OpIndia Hindi from November 15 to 29 were located to be invariably situated against any criticism of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. On February 12, OpIndia had organised an ideological seminar featuring prominent figures from right wing intelligentsia; Newslaundry noted the seminar to have spread communally charged conspiracy theories about the Kathua rape case, equate the Shaheen Bagh protests to formation of mini-Pakistan and engage in other Islamophobic discourse.

Response

Sharma had rejected the IFCN assessment in entirety and urged for an acceptance of outlets with open political leanings, as in United States. It also asserts AltNews, Boom etc. of propagating fake news and disinformation over numerous occasions.

References

1. Sources supporting OpIndia to follow a right wing ideology:
   • Bhushan/TheWire, Sandeep (2017-01-26). "Arnab's Republic hints at mainstreaming right-wing opinion as a business". Business Standard India. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
   • Ananth, Venkat (2019-05-07). "Can fact-checking emerge as big and viable business?". The Economic Times. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
   • Mihindukulasuriya, Regina (2019-05-08). "BJP supporters have a secret weapon in their online poll campaign — satire". ThePrint. Retrieved 10 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
   • Sharma, Ajay. Horses Can Fly. Notion Press. ISBN 9352066715.
   • Ghosh, Labonita (17 June 2018). "The troll who turned". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 10 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
   • Manish, Sai (8 April 2018). "Busting fake news: Who funds whom?". Rediff. Retrieved 10 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
   • Chaturvedi, Swati (2016). I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP's Digital Army. Juggernaut Books. pp. 11, 23. ISBN 9789386228093.
   • "Tables Turn on Twitter's Hindutva Warriors, and It's the BJP Doing the Strong-Arming". The Wire. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
2. Bhushan/TheWire, Sandeep (2017-01-26). "Arnab's Republic hints at mainstreaming right-wing opinion as a business". Business Standard India. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
3. ^ Sources supporting OpIndia to have disseminated fake news:
   • "Search results for OpIndia". Alt News. Retrieved 10 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
   • "Search results for OpIndia". BOOM. Retrieved 10 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
   • Santanu Chakrabarti (20 November 2018). "DUTY, IDENTITY, CREDIBILITY – Fake news and the ordinary citizen in India" (PDF). BBC. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
   • "Debunking False Allegations About Amartya Sen and Nalanda University". The Wire. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
   • Khuhro, Zarrar (2018-07-09). "Digital death". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
   • Saxena, Gaurav (17 July 2017). "A day without fake news: BJP IT Cell's protest against police action". Newslaundry.
   • Tiwari, Ayush (19 August 2018). "What the 'fact-checks' on Modi's gutter-gas theory didn't tell us". Newslaundry.
   • Kumar, Basant (3 January 2020). "Fake news, lies, Muslim bashing, and Ravish Kumar: Inside OpIndia's harrowing world". Newslaundry. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
4. ^ Manish, Sai (2018-04-07). "Right vs Wrong: Arundhati Roy, Mohandas Pai funding fake news busters". Business Standard India. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
5. Roushan, Rahul (2018-11-23). "Announcement: OpIndia is now a separate legal and business entity - Opindia News". OpIndia. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
6. ^ Kumar, Basant (3 January 2020). "Fake news, lies, Muslim bashing, and Ravish Kumar: Inside OpIndia's harrowing world". Newslaundry. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
7. "Busting fake news: Who funds whom?". Rediff. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
8. Ananth, Venkat (2019-05-07). "Can fact-checking emerge as big and viable business?". The Economic Times. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
9. Kaur, Kanchan (11 February 2019). "Conclusions and recommendations on the application by OpIndia.com". International Fact-Checking Network. Archived from the original on 10 March 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
10. ^ Ananth, Venkat (7 May 2019). "Can fact-checking emerge as big and viable business?". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
11. ^ Tiwari, Ayush (16 February 2020). "I braved 'Bharat Bodh' and lived to tell the tale : Muslim-baiters, rape-deniers, livelihood-destroyers, apologists of religious violence — the Opindia and My Nation event had'em all". Newslaundry. Retrieved 17 February 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

• Indian websites
• Media in India
• Watchdog journalism
• Fake news