Up Close With Zoo_Bear

On June 28, Mohammed Zubair returned to Twitter, ending a one-month-long ‘forced’ sabbatical from the popular social media platform. Announcing his comeback to his 6 lakh followers on Twitter, Zubair - whose popular Twitter handle is @ zoo_bear - wrote: “Jo aaj sahib-e-masnand hai kal nahi hoge! (those who hold the power today may not be occupying the seat tomorrow), accompanied by a smiling selfie. The tweet went viral, as usual, with more than one lakh tweeple giving their thumbs up. For, they were missing him badly for one month.

The co-founder of India’s most popular factfinding website Alt News was forced to take a break after he was arrested on charges of hurting religious sentiments for a tweet that he had posted in March 2018. The police confiscated his mobile phone and laptop as part of the investigation.

Zubair has been a thorn in the flesh of powers-that-be because of his uncanny knack for busting fake news for more than five years. He even called out editors and owners of prominent television channels for their inability to rein in panellists who sowed seeds of hatred.

One such incident happened on May 27 when he tweeted a clip of Nupur Sharma, then the Bharatiya Janata Party’s spokesperson, going on a tirade against Prophet Mohammad on a show on Times Now television channel. “Prime Time debates in India have become a platform to encourage hate mongers to speak ill about other religions,” he tweeted, tagging the moderator of the show, Navika Kumar, and Vineet Jain, the managing director of the channel’s parent company.

The tweet hogged international attention and seven countries, including oil-rich nations in the Gulf region, summoned Indian ambassadors to express their concern over Sharma’s comments. Sharma was suspended, but the party supporters called for retributive action against Zubair.

Exactly a month later, Zubair was arrested. Police in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi vied with each other to book him in various cases (see box - Cases against Zubair) and keep him in jail. A month later, the Supreme Court came to his rescue and gave him bail (see box - Timeline: From Arrest to Bail). In the bail order, the bench, led by Justice DY Chandrachud, observed that the existence of power of arrest must be pursued sparingly by the police. The judges disbanded a Special Investigation Team formed by the Uttar Pradesh government to investigate the FIRs against the journalist.

Eventually, Zubair walked out of the jail on July 20 and came back to his Bengaluru home on July 21 after a harrowing 24 days in jail. The incarceration has not lowered Zubair’s fighting spirit as he vows to continue the fake news busting exercise with more vigour and take Alt News to great heights, along with co-founder and close friend Pratik Sinha. Zubair shares life before incarceration and life after it in a freewheeling chat with News Trail.

I’m a proud son of a farmer...
My father was a farmer in Thally, a village in Denkannikottai taluk. Our village is also known as Little England because of the pleasant weather. My father used to come to Bengaluru to sell grains and mangoes. As I was the eldest, I accompanied him many times to the market. My father and mother wanted their children to have the best education and soon, we moved to Bengaluru.

Had no interest in politics...
I had no interest in journalism or politics when I was a student. After graduating in telecommunication engineering, I took up a job as an IT professional and was doing well. During my travels across the states, I made a lot of contacts. Pratik Sinha was one among them. We became friends and started speaking about news and politics. Together, we founded Alt News in 2017.

I am a cricketer...
I used to play gully cricket in JC Road when I was young. I play with my friends whenever I get time.

I work for 17 hours...
I begin my daily work immediately after getting up from bed. I work all the time, except the seven hours I sleep.

Love trumps hate...
I get more love than hate and that motivates me to continue with fact-checking. Alt News is purely funded by the people who want to know the truth. They are our driving force. I don’t want to let them down.

My Twitter handle’s popularity...
If zoo_bear is a much-talked- about Twitter handle, I owe a part of the credit to my school friend Praveen. He used to taunt me, calling Zoo Bear, instead of Zubair, in school. When I was about to create a new Twitter account, I decided to opt for it. And rest, as they say, is history.

Flagged pages spreading misinformation...
Initially, we used to circulate our fact-checked stories through social media. But no me