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OpIndia is an Indian right-wing news portal founded in 2014 by Kumar Kamal and Rahul Raj. It also claims to be a fact-checking website. OpIndia has propagated fake news on multiple occasions. In 2019, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) rejected OpIndia's application for accreditation as a fact checker.

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

In a 2018 interview with the Business Standard, Sharma stated that OpIndia is openly right-leaning and does not claim to be ideologically neutral. 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.

Fact checkers certified by the Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), including Alt News and Boom, have identified multiple instances in which OpIndia has propagated fake news.

Reception

In May 2019, the IFCN rejected OpIndia's application to be accredited as a fact-checker. While noting partial compliance on a number of categories, the IFCN rejected the application on grounds of political partisanship and lack of transparency, and raised concerns over questionable fact-checking methodologies. The rejection disqualified OpIndia from fact-checking contracts with web properties owned by Facebook and Google. In response, Sharma criticized the IFCN assessment and urged for acceptance of outlets with "declared ideological leanings".

After co-founder Raj departed OpIndia, he described the website as a "blind mouthpiece" of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Twitter in August 2019. Raj also criticized Sharma for "abusive language against even right-wing supporters" of the party.

References

1. "OpIndia CEO Rahul Roushan calls for mob violence, deletes tweet". Alt News. 17 February 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
2. "opindia.com Competitive Analysis, Marketing Mix and Traffic". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
3. 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. 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)
   • 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?". Business Standard. Retrieved 2020-03-03 – via Rediff.com.
   • Chaturvedi, Swati (2016). I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP's Digital Army. Juggernaut Books. pp. 11, 23. ISBN 9789386228093.
   • Matharu, Aleesha. "Tables Turn on Twitter's Hindutva Warriors, and It's the BJP Doing the Strong-Arming". The Wire. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
4. Bhushan/TheWire, Sandeep (2017-01-26). "Arnab's Republic hints at mainstreaming right-wing opinion as a business". Business Standard. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
5. ^ *"Search results for OpIndia". Alt News. Archived from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
   • "Search results for OpIndia". Boom. Archived from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
   • Chakrabarti, Santanu; Stengel, Lucile; Solanki, Sapna (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.
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ Manish, Sai (2018-04-07). "Right vs Wrong: Arundhati Roy, Mohandas Pai funding fake news busters". Business Standard. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
8. ^ Matharu, Aleesha. "Tables Turn on Twitter's Hindutva Warriors, and It's the BJP Doing the Strong-Arming". The Wire. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
9. Manish, Sai (8 April 2018). "Busting fake news: Who funds whom?". Business Standard. Retrieved 2020-03-03 – via Rediff.com.
10. Kumar, Basant (3 January 2020). "Fake news, lies, Muslim bashing, and Ravish Kumar: Inside OpIndia's harrowing world". Newslaundry. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
11. ^ Ananth, Venkat (2019-05-07). "Can fact-checking emerge as big and viable business?". The Economic Times. Retrieved 10 November 2019.

External links

• Official website

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