According to reports, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is poised to take action on Wikipedia after taking note of the altered Wikipedia entry associating cricketer Arshdeep Singh to Khalistan.
The Wikipedia page of cricketer Arshdeep Singh was altered by an unauthorised user to link him to the separatist Khalistani movement on Monday, prompting the Ministry of Electronics and Technology to declare that “no middleman functioning in India may enable this sort of disinformation.” According to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the MoS for Electronics and Technology, “No intermediary operating in India can accept this sort of disinformation and purposeful attempts to incitement and user harm – breaches our govt’s expectation of Safe & Trusted Internet.”
After dropping a critical catch in the last overs of his team’s Asia Cup match against Pakistan on Sunday night, Arshdeep was the victim of harsh internet taunting.
On Singh’s Wikipedia article, “India” was changed to “Khalistan” by an anonymous user, however these modifications were quickly reversed by another editor.
Social media users posted images with the caption, “He was picked in Khalistan team for the 2018 under-19 World Cup.”
The person who made the edits was not registered and was using the internet protocol (IP) address 39.41.171.125, according to the edit history of Arshdeep’s Wikipedia page.
Additionally, the user changed his name from “Major Arshdeep Singh Langra” to “Major Arshdeep Singh Bajwa” after a brief interval. Singh’s game statistics underwent several arbitrary modifications.
As per the address allocation documents, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited was given the specific address (PTCL).
When the game on Sunday, Arshdeep Singh went to the top of the social media trending list after he missed a sitter in the Asia Cup 2022 Super 4 match at a vital moment.
But in the last over, he made up for it. With two runs needed in just two deliveries, he came in to bowl the last over and dismissed Asif Ali to keep Team India’s hopes alive.
However, he was brutally attacked by enraged fans, and many even went as far as to insult him and his family on numerous social media sites. They blamed him for the defeat.
However, Indian cricket community rallied around the young bowler who had lost a significant catch in the game’s 18th over.
Virat Kohli, an Indian batsman, defended himself with some forceful comments, saying, “Even when I played my debut game against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy, I hit a terrible shot and was out. Under duress, everyone may make mistakes. Feeling awful is normal. Credit for the current positive team atmosphere belongs to management and the captain.
Therefore, one must own his error, deal with it, and look forward to being under pressure again, said Kohli on Sunday during a post-match news conference.
The former India spinner Harbhajan Singh defended him, saying that no one intentionally loses catches and that the young seamer shouldn’t be blamed.
“Stop criticising @arshdeepsingh, who is young. No one intentionally misses a catch, and we are proud of our lads. Pakistan performed better, but shame on those who put our own players down by disparaging Arsh and the squad on this platform. Arsh is GOLD,” tweeted Harbhajan.
Pakistan’s attempt to reach a goal of 182 was put in jeopardy when Ravi Bishnoi removed captain Babar Azam (14) in the fourth over of the session. Fakhar Zaman, who was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal after scoring 15, also failed to produce a strong performance.
A crucial partnership between Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Nawaz followed, amassing 84 runs for the third wicket. Rizwan (41) and Nawaz (41) were both quickly eliminated by Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, respectively. Senior bowler Bhuvneshwar let 19 runs in the last over as India lost the game by five wickets with Pakistan needing 26 runs off the final two overs.
