NB In List | Sweden-based fake news peddler Ashok Swain’s Twitter handle withheld in India; 4 times he has spread misinformation

NewsBharati    09-Aug-2023 10:23:10 AM
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Social media giant the X, formerly known as Twitter, account of Sweden-based fake news peddler Ashok Swain has been withheld in the country in response to a legal demand by the Government of India.
 
Notable Ashok Swain is a professor at Upsala University and has been spreading misinformation to mislead the public with an aim to malign India, Hindus and present a false narrative of Muslim victimhood in the country.
 

Ashok Swain twitter account withheld in India
 
Speaking on the same, Senior Advisor in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Kanchan Gupta pointed out that from now on, Swain will not be able to peddle misinformation and fake news in the country.
 
Taking to X, Gupta wrote, "This malicious disinformation and hateful Fake News peddler is a Swedish national funded by UU University of Sweden. His corrosive hate-mongering and disinfo. campaigns will no longer titillate his perverse Left Liberal fans in Bharat."
 
 
Ashok Swain is not only a fake news peddler but also has supported radical Islamists and attacked Hindus on several instances.
 
 
Meanwhile, soon after this development, there were reports other handles that have also been withheld in India, seemingly in a crackdown against fake news. The microblogging site has also taken action against Ahmed Khabeer who works as the editor of ‘Jamia Times’, who is also known for peddling fake news and normalising Hinduphobia.
 
 
 

Here are some of the instances where he has spread fake news on social media-

 
1. On July 29th, 2023 when lakhs of Manipuris across communities took out a peace rally in Imphal against narco terrorism, Ashok Swain tweeted that this was a protest by majority Meiteis against the arrest of those accused of the heinous crime of publicly parading 2 sexually assaulted women. But this turned out to be fake news! He had to delete the post after backlash.
 
 
 
2. In December 2022, sharing a video of a mob thrashing a person, Swain gave a communal colour to the assault, insinuating that the man faced a near-fatal lynching attack for being a Muslim. However, the mob had thrashed him on suspicion of being a thief. The police later arrested 5 people involved in the incident after the video of the thrashing went viral on the internet. Additionally, they also filed a case against the victim on theft charges.
 
3. In May 2023, he had falsely accused Sikar police of raping the dead body of a woman by taking it out of a burning pyre. " While Indian media spreading fake news about the locked grave in Pakistan to keep rapists away, in Sikar, India, five Hindus have been caught for raping the dead body of a woman by taking it out of a burning pyre," he had said. However, Sikar police refuted the claims made by him and several other personalities.
 
 
4. In January this year, a video of a man being confronted and beaten by a mob went viral claiming that the victim is a Muslim youth and is being attacked because of his religion. Ashok Swain, again supported this fake news and reshared the video, claiming that members of a ‘Hindu supremacist vigilante’ group thrashed a Muslim man for talking to a Hindu girl.
Ashok Swain Twitter Fake News Fake News Peddler Sweden