Alt News: The small fact-checking unit that made India’s Prophet Muhammad row go global

Offensive comments made on TV by a BJP spokesperson might have gone unnoticed, until an Alt News video about the incident went viral online. Stuti Mishra speaks to the outfit’s founder about the challenges of calling out hate speech in India today

Muslim activists hold placards during a protest calling for the arrest of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma in Chennai (Getty Images)

On 27 May, when Indian news channel Times Now held a debate over the issue of a disputed mosque site in northern India, it might have just been another chaotic day of shouting and barbed comments among the panellists on the right-wing channel.

That was until a clip of one moment in the debate was tweeted out by fact-checker Mohammad Zubair, 39, a former telecoms engineer who is part of the 13-member team at Alt News tasked with tackling the rampant disinformation and hate speech spread online and through the country’s broadcast media.

The clip showed a spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad as she vied to be heard over a Muslim panellist. The moment passed quickly and was not directly addressed by Times Now’s anchor Navika Kumar, and – though shocking – might easily have been lost in the noise of all the other hate-filled and hot-headed panel debates that fill primetime news coverage in India.