A spokesman for India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is suing an independent local news website, AP reported.

Amit Malviya, the BJP's IT chief, said he would sue the news website The Wire for publishing fake documents to defame and tarnish its reputation.

The Wire, known for its critical reporting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, published a series of sensational articles alleging that Meta had given Malvia special powers to delete Instagram posts without the company's content moderators.

To confirm this, The Wire published screenshots of internal reports and emails it said were accessed by sources at Meta. But former Meta employees and whistleblowers, technical experts in India and Silicon Valley, and Meta itself said the allegations were untrue and questioned the authenticity of the evidence.

Nevertheless, The Wire redoubled its efforts and published new articles claiming that the internal emails it accessed were true, though independent tech experts continue to question its findings and said the documents it published turned out to be fake.

Amid growing criticism, The Wire last week withdrew its articles and began an internal review of its reporting and editorial processes. The news website said it found inconsistencies in its stories but would not say they were fabricated.

However, the portal later published a public apology on its Web site and said that an unnamed employee had deceived the organization and that it lacked the expertise to verify technical stories.

The Wire's stories have raised growing concerns in India about digital privacy and government efforts to tightly control the Internet, and at least one opposition party has said it will discuss the issue in parliament.