Bengaluru: Mohammad Zubair, the co-founder of Alt News, has recently come under fire online from a number of pro-Hindutva influencers, with some even calling for violence against the journalist. Threats against Zubair range from those calling for lone wolf attacks to those requesting "extrajudicial steps" against him.
Several of the threats came as a result of Zubair confronting the guy who had made derogatory remarks about the fact-checkers family's women. Another time, Shashank Shekhar Jha, a lawyer for the Supreme Court, tweeted that he would never forgive Zubair, the News Minute reported.
Right-wing columnist Harshil Mehta and former OpIndia editor Ajeet Bharti are among those who threatened Zubair.
“The plan is on. This time he will be totally circumcised so much that he'll need a pipe to urinate,” tweeted Bharti. Some users suggested lone wolf attacks and “Akhlaq” like treatment.
Mohammed Akhlaq was killed by a mob in the Dadri region of Uttar Pradesh in 2015 after they believed he had consumed beef.
“I am not aware of any death threat, no such information has come to me,” said Bengaluru police commissioner Pratap Reddy. “If Zubair approaches us, we will consider giving security based on the case.”
The co-founder of Alt News Pratik Sinha stated that they were discussing their options with their lawyers.
Zubair tweeted earlier to say that while he generally ignores or laughs off the barrage of abuse he gets, the flurry of tweets from people threatening to "physically harm & finish me" has increased since Alt News exposed false propaganda about murderous attacks on migrant Bihari workers in Tamil Nadu. Zubair also revealed to The Wire that he had previously received threats, but that this time they were harsher and more direct.
Recently, it was falsely reported by a number of right-wing social media pages, BJP leaders, and some mainstream news outlets that migrant labourers, especially those from Bihar, were being lynched in Tamil Nadu.
Zubair was one of the fact-checkers who exposed two "fake" videos that falsely claimed migrant labourers in Tamil Nadu were being attacked. As a result of their fact-checking, criminal charges were also brought against Prashant Umrao, a BJP spokesperson for Uttar Pradesh, the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, right-wing website OpIndia’s editor Nupur Sharma and CEO Rahul Roushan, as well as a few other YouTubers and Twitter accounts.
The Hindu right wing frequently abuses Zubair, and they have also brought criminal charges against him. He was detained in June 2022 on an allegation of "hurting religious sentiments" as a result of one of his tweets.
Zubair was initially detained by the Delhi police, but several FIRs for his tweet were also made against him in Uttar Pradesh. Before being freed on bail, he was imprisoned for 24 days.
The Supreme Court stated when giving him bail that "it finds no reason or justification for the deprivation of his liberty to persist any further”. Zubair was ordered by the UP government to stop tweeting, but the Supreme Court argued that a journalist could not be stopped from tweeting and writing.