Digital wallet firm Paytm on Friday denied allegations that it had breached users’ privacy by sharing their data with the Prime Minister’s Office.
“There is absolutely no truth in the sensational headlines of a video doing rounds on social media,” Paytm said in a tweet. “Our users’ data is 100% secure and has never been shared with anyone except law enforcement agencies on request. Thank you for your continued support.”
The company was referring to a video released earlier in the day by investigative news website Cobrapost as part of its documentary “Operation 136: Part II”, an exposé on media houses allegedly tailoring content to promote a Hindutva agenda. It showed Paytm’s Senior Vice President Ajay Shekhar Sharma purportedly claiming that the Prime Minister’s Office had asked for the personal data of some Paytm users in the aftermath of stone-pelting incidents in Jammu and Kashmir last year.
“When the stone-pelting stopped there in Jammu and Kashmir, I personally got a phone call from the PMO,” Sharma is heard saying in the video to the Cobrapost journalist. “They told us to give them data saying maybe some of the stone-pelters are Paytm users.”
During the course of the discussion, the senior Paytm official is also seen admitting his association with the leadership at the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
#MediaOnSale Ajay Shekhar of paytm revealed that how they provided the data of their users to a political party, on the order of PMO. pic.twitter.com/fKZPQ2LDGZ
— Cobrapost (@cobrapost) May 25, 2018
There is absolutely NO TRUTH in the sensational headlines of a video doing rounds on social media. Our users’ data is 100% secure and has never been shared with anyone except law enforcement agencies on request. Thank you for your continued support.
— Paytm (@Paytm) May 25, 2018
The documentaries
The Delhi High Court on Thursday restrained Cobrapost from releasing the second part of the documentary based on a plea from Dainik Bhaskar, a daily that features in it. Cobrapost, however, released the second part on social media late on Friday afternoon, excluding the reporter’s purported discussion with officials of Dainik Bhaskar.
The organisation had in March claimed that 17 media houses had indulged in paid news, peddled a communal agenda and accepted black money for their activities.
Part one of the documentary, titled Operation 136: Part I, showed a Cobrapost reporter posing as a religious activist, approaching media houses to help the BJP win the 2019 elections by promoting Hindutva through the press. It showed media house representatives purportedly agreeing to the undercover reporter’s proposal to carry communally-motivated news in exchange for bribes.
The second part claims to have exposed “more than two dozen media houses” agreeing to plant such stories in exchange for money. In a press release, Cobrapost claimed that some media organisations had done so for huge amounts of money.
