The arrest comes after the Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum filed a complaint against Kishore K Swamy for continuous harassment on social media.
Swami Subramaniam
Analize official Twitter account of kishore k swamy (@sansbarrier) by words and their repeats of last year. Any twitter company page, stock live, developer, ads. Kishore K Swamy, a self-proclaimed AIADMK supporter is said be a habitual online harasser who particularly targets women journalists- Photo courtesy: Facebook Kavin told FeminsitsIndia that she suspects Swamy has chosen to target her primarily because she is a woman and also because she has written often on Dalit issues.
The Cyber Crime wing of the Chennai Police arrested Kishore K Swamy, a self-attested 'political analyst', for engaging in continuous harassment of women journalists on social media. The arrest comes following a complaint filed by Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum.
As per the police complaint filed by Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum in July 2019, Kishore K Swamy, a popular AIADMK and BJP supporter on social media has been harassing women journalists by posting obscenities on them on social media, especially Twitter. The complaint narrated at least three different instances in which Kishore had insulted women journalists on social media. He also indulged in character assassination of these women journalists and instigated people from a particular religion against them. Based on these instances, the complaint had also urged the Chennai Commissioner of Police to take stringent action against him. Based on this complaint, the Cyber Cell had registered an FIR against him under sections 354D (Stalking), 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC and section 4 (Harassment of Women) of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Women Harassment Act, 1998.
However, he was released on bail later in the afternoon.
Speaking to TNM, Jaya Bathuri, the Coordinator of the Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum said that they had ignored him for long considering that he was doing it for 'fame'. “But when this (posting abusive posts online about women journalists) became a daily affair, we had to react at some point. When women are already in a field where entry for women is difficult, such fascists must be dealt with,” she said. She also added that when representatives from the Forum had approached the Commissioner of Police to file a complaint, they were told that there were already quite a few complaints against Kishore from other journalists. “The Commissioner had assured us of action against him,” she added.
Kishore Swamy has moved from one political camp to another over the years. While he was initially an 'AIADMK supporter', he became a Sasikala loyalist after Jayalalithaa's death. Later, he claimed to be with TTV Dhinakaran faction for a while. These days, his tweets and Facebook posts have been in favour of the BJP. However, all these parties, especially the AIADMK has said that he has nothing to do with the party.
In the last one and half years, multiple women journalists have filed complaints against the man for vile tweets that amount to sexual harassment. Other than the Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum, individual women journalists and a few male counterparts too had filed complaints. English news channels, however, continued to call Kishore K Swamy as an 'expert guest' on their debates, though journalists working with these organisations have themselves complained of harassment.
Sonia Arunkumar, another representative of Tamil Nadu Women Journalists Forum, said that Kishore is a serial offender who has been posting abusive posts about those in media and media organisations for many years. “He posts about everybody. Men, women, senior journalists, everybody. We wanted to convey that we will not take it lightly and that’s why we decided to lodge formal complaint,” she said.
Adding that Kishore has always been shifting loyalties in the past, she also pointed out that more damage is done by those who spread his posts and engage with him. “For instance, at present if you check it is the BJP supporters who are giving more mileage to his tweets and propagating it. This emboldens him. As a party, they could have at least desisted from encouraging him or giving him any kind of validation. His posts have given young women journalists, who are new to the field, immense mental agony,” she added.
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A newspaper clipping is being circulated on social media after old, Islamophobic tweets by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya targetting Arab women resurfaced and subsequently received flak from prominent Arab influencers.
The clipping is a report published by DNA which is headlined, “Qatari Princess caught in Orgy with 7 men”. It cites a report by British newspaper Financial Times (FT) and says, “Qatari Princess Sheikha Salwa was caught having group sex with seven men at a hotel in London”. The same clipping, posted by Twitter handle @TheSquind, has garnered more than 500 retweets. However, @TheSquind has tagged Princess Hend Al Qassimi, a member of the UAE royal family. Qassimi had recently called-out an Indian national working in Dubai for posting racist and discriminatory tweets against UAE.
Furthermore, it is being claimed in the report that when the Qatari Embassy in the UK was notified about the matter, they had offered the media outlet $50 million to kill the story. Twitter handle Kishore K Swamy too posted the clipping and said, “And she is the princess celebrated by Dmk it wing and single-source idiots. Bloody paid campaign rats.”
Social media influencer Payal Rohtagi, who on several occasions has been found spreading communally-charged misinformation, also tweeted the newspaper clipping with a message targeting journalist Nidhi Razdan.
The same story was carried by Hindi daily Amar Ujalain 2016.
Sansbarrier Twitter
Fact-check
With a Google search, Alt News found several reports which stated that the news story is “fake”. A report published by Firstpost on August 24, 2016, said, “An alleged scandal about Qatari princess which Financial Times, a British publication reported has been termed ‘fake’. At the time of writing, a variety of news reports have contradicted the Financial Times story — that has subsequently vanished as several Google searches revealed.”
A Twitter search for the oldest article that had cited this alleged FT report revealed that a website named Oddcrimes.com was one of the earliest to cite it. The report published on this website doesn’t exist anymore. This alleged report was cited by several other shady websites.
One such website is AWD News. It’s a fake news website which had infamously published a piece of misinformation that led to Pakistan issuing a nuclear warning to Israel. Fact-checking outlet Snopes says the website “doesn’t have more than a nodding acquaintance with facts, instead playing on nationalistic fantasy and conspiracy theory to create alarming (and thus clickable and shareable) stories”. An archived version of the fake news story published by AWD News can be accessed here.
It may be noted that AWD News while quoting an alleged report by FT cited their source as another website called Middle East Press (archive).
Interestingly, this article by middleeastpress.com has also been deleted. This article too cited an alleged report by Financial Times, however, it carries no hyperlink.
Thus, it can be said with certainty that there exists no report by FT which is claimed to have broken the story of a ‘Qatari princess caught with seven men’. Moreover, one of the earliest websites that cited this alleged FT report has a history of publishing fake news stories.
In an email response to Mumbai-based English tabloid Afternoon Voice, then Editorial Assistant at FT’s Newsroom Michael Lindsay had said, “We understand that the article mentioned by you was originally published on www.awdnews.com, which is not our website. The Financial Times is not responsible for false article published by AWD. Further, it is not the case that the Financial Times has published any such news report, or been involved in any such events, as are mentioned in AWD’s false article.”
Unrelated photo of an Arab businesswoman
Moreover, the woman whose photo is being shared as Qatari Princess ‘Sheikha Salwa’ is actually the Chief Operating Officer of Dubai-based Mazrui Holdings Alia Al Mazrouei. You can watch a video interview of her with Dubai-based news outlet Gulf News.
Moreover, you can also see a tweet by her account on Twitter.
I am looking forward to be part of the Jury for the MENA Effie Awards 2017.#menaeffie17pic.twitter.com/KGHBOko3TA
— علياء المزروعي (@AliaAlMazrouei) September 13, 2017
In conclusion, a four-year-old fake news story was revived by social media to vilify Princess Hend Al Qassimi of UAE.
Kishore K Swamy Twitter Site
This article was originally published on Alt News. Read here.