One of the key figures removed from his position in the recent reshuffle of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) national office-bearers is its former IT cell chief, Amit Malviya. Chhattisgarh's Deepak Mhaskey is set to take up the position of the controversial IT cell chief, a post Malviya held for almost 11 years.
While on one side, under Malviya's leadership, the BJP's IT cell expanded massively, Malviya's stint was marked by controversies and accusations of spreading mis and disinformation.
A report by The Washington Post stated the network involved around 1.5 lakh social media workers disseminating content, often via WhatsApp groups. The IT cell under his tenure was credited by some as playing a significant part in the BJP's landslide victory in the 2014 general election. He also served as the party's co-in-charge for West Bengal.
The Quint's fact-checking team, WebQoof, has debunked several of Malviya's claims in the last nine years of its existence. Here is a look back at some of the most controversial claims made by him that were fact-checked by us.
Nearly nine years ago, Malviya shared a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming that the then-upcoming Ro-Ro ferry in Gujarat was the "first of its kind" in India.
X users were quick to point out that they had been using similar ferries, from Maharashtra to Andaman and Nicobar for years, with one user sharing an image from 2012, as highlighted in our report here.
A Decade of Targeting the Congress
When he first became the head of the IT cell, Malviya shared a fabricated statement, claiming that Nehru had said he was "Hindu only by accident of birth."
We pored through books and historical archives, and also spoke to historians. There is absolutely no evidence of Nehru having made this statement.
Later in November 2017, Malviya also shared a clipped video of Congress' Rahul Gandhi, claiming that he had said he would set up a machine that would convert potatoes into gold.
However, Team WebQoof found that while Gandhi indeed made the statement, he was referring to PM Modi's assurances to farmers, where the latter reportedly told Gujarat's potato farmers that he would give them machines that would convert potatoes to gold.
His remark can be heard between the 17:50 and 18:15-minute marks in a video of his public address in Gujarat's Patan.
Malviya has also repeatedly targeted former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, sharing his images with false claims and misleading context. One such report can be seen here.
In 2019, Malviya again targeted the Congress by claiming that it had issued a directive to the Indian Union Muslim League, asking them not to raise their flag during a Congress rally in Kerala's Wayanad.
The then-secretary of the IUML, TM Salim, had rubbished these reports as fake. He told The Quint, “These reports are all false, there has been no such advisory from the Congress. In fact, if you switch to any of the local news channels, you will see that there are more IUML flags than Congress flags here at Wayanad.”
Sharing a photo of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi in China in 2020, the former IT cell head said that the entire family had visited China in 2008 despite not holding any public office. He questioned why "the family's interest, from Doklam to Ladakh," was above national interest.
We found that this claim, too, was false. The photo was taken in New Delhi in 2018, showing the Gandhi siblings attending the China Diaoyutai Food Festival.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Malviya shared two images, alleging that they showed "Congress' toolkit" which was being shared to derail the government's efforts in tacking the crisis.
X, formerly Twitter, had tagged the post as 'manipulated media', marking the first time it had done so for an Indian political figure. The Ministry of Information Technology (MeitY) had then reportedly reached out to the platform, asking them to take the tag down.
In 2023, Malviya shared a clipped video of Rahul Gandhi with the misleading claim that he had referred to India's population in rupees instead of a number. In reality, Gandhi initially referred to India's population in rupees, he immediately corrected his slip-up and said, "140 crore people."
The following year, he shared a photo showing Sonia Gandhi with the 2007 Indian cricket World Cup winning team, claiming that she had met them because of her 'privilege' while former PM Manmohan Singh had not met the team at all.
Yet again, the claim was found to be false. Watch how we debunked this claim.
In 2025, the Congress' National Spokesperson Supriya Shrinate called Malviya out for sharing misinformation, calling him a "fake news peddler" for sharing a photo of Rahul Gandhi with a false claim.
Pro-RSS Claims and Communal Disinformation
After the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Committee released a cross-country report about religious minorities in May 2024, Malviya shared some findings from the report, claiming that the percentage of Hindus in India fell by around eight percent, while the percentage of Muslims rose by approximately 43 percent.
However, Team WebQoof analysed the report and found that the figures had been misrepresented. The PMAC report noted that the Hindu population fell by 6.62 percentage points, the number of Muslims increased by 4.25 percentage points in 65 years.
Following the communal theme, Malviya shared a set of photos from West Bengal, which showed shattered and broken idols of Hindu deities. He claimed that the attack was one of "rising wave of anti-Hindu hatred."
However, West Bengal Police clarified that there was no communal angle to the incident, noting that two intoxicated men had vandalised a potter's shop over a dispute.
In 2025, Malviya shared a set of images, claiming that the Dutch government had issued a set of special stamps to commemorate 100 years of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
We found that anyone could make these stamps with a design of their choice, and that the government had not issued the said stamps, making the claim false.
Claims About Political Opponents and Movements
On at least two separate occasions, Malviya targeted former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
He shared a clipped video of hers to claim that Banerjee had said that the BJP 'does drama' if a temple is demolished. In reality, a longer version of the video showed that she had criticised the party for demolishing temples while building the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
In another instance, he shared a video of singer Arijit Singh at a film festival in Kolkata, claiming that Banerjee had asked him to sing one of his favourite songs. He claimed that he had specifically picked to song 'Gerua' to indicate that the future of the state was saffron.
The video in the claim is edited. In the full video, Singh sings a Bengali song 'Bojhena Shey Bojhena' after someone on the stage requests it, and sings 'Gerua' to honour Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, who was also present at the event.
When polling for the 2026 West Bengal was underway, Malviya also shared a video of the Trinamool Congress' candidate Byron Biswas, claiming that he had accepted his defeat while naming other candidates who were set to lose.
This claim was also false, as Biswas was naming candidates and constituencies where he alleged foul play after a CCTV malfunction in the EVM strongroom in Jangipur.
During the 2020-2021 farmers' protest, Malviya shared a clipped video claiming to show 'propaganda' during the protest. X subsequently marked this post as one carrying 'manipulated media'.
More recently, he also shared disinformation during the Cockroach Janta Party's (CJP) protest demanding the resignation of the education minister.
After Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk was forcefully taken away from the protest site to a hospital, Malviya shared an old medical report, claiming that Wangchuk's detention and medical check up were conducted with his consent.
However, the report he shared was an old one and was not one that was made after his detention.
Legal Issues and Action
In January 2022, The Wire published an investigative report alleging that Malviya and the IT cell used an application called "Tek Fog" to manipulate social media discourse, automate trends, and hijack accounts.
The report claimed the app allowed Malviya to remove any Twitter posts he wished. However, following intense scrutiny over the evidence and methodology, The Wire retracted the series later that year and acknowledged editorial lapses. Malviya denied any involvement, filing a complaint against the publication for their report.
The following year, Ramesh Babu, the co-chairman of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Communication and Social Media Department, filed an FIR against Malviya in Karnataka for sharing a "false" video of Rahul Gandhi.
In May 2025, the Indian Youth Congress filed an FIR against Malviya and Republic's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for "defaming the constitutional office of" Rahul Gandhi.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9540511818 , or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)