Hateful X Handle Impersonating Radical Buddhist Monk Run by a UP Resident

Ashin Wirathu, the radical Buddhist monk from Myanmar widely known for his anti-Muslim stance and vitriolic sermons, leapt to fame for the first time in the early 2000s with the nationalist 969 movement. Over the years, he has risen to become the face of communal hatred in Myanmar, which has seen an uptick in violence between Buddhists and Muslims, mainly immigrant Rohingyas, since 2012.

As Wirathu gathered thousands of followers on and off social media, Time Magazine in 2013 described him as “The Face of Buddhist Terror.” In the same year, The Guardian called him “Burma’s Bin Laden”. In 2019, he was charged with inciting ‘hate and contempt’ against the civilian government in Myanmar. After going into hiding initially, he surrendered in November 2020. In 2021, Myanmar’s military junta staged a coup, seized power in the country, and released Ashin Wirathu.

An X account with the same user name and handle @WirathuAshin with 23000+ followers regularly shares anti-Muslim tweets and incites its audience against the community. An investigation by Alt News has now revealed that this X account is being run by an Indian named Anurag Tiwari, who has links with the Right-wing propaganda website, OpIndia. The controversial Myanmar monk, Ashin Wirathu, has no connection with this X handle.

Below is a recent example of an inflammatory tweet by this handle, which received over 2,000 likes.

There are several other instances where the handle has shared hateful tweets against Muslims describing them as a threat to India. At times, the indigenous tribe of Kukis from northeast India have also come under attack:

To capture this entire investigation in a concise format for our readers, we have created this diagram below. The findings of the months-long investigation are explained in detail in the rest of this report.

Upon a close look at the activities of the X account (@WirathuAshin), we found that the first tweet in recent times had been posted on May 14, 2024. The tweet claims that the account belongs to Wirathu Ashin. It adds that the account was shut down by the former owners of X, i.e., Twitter, and was reactivated after Wirathu personally spoke to Elon Musk.

When we tried to crosscheck these claims, we found that X, then Twitter, had suspended it on June 17, 2020. A user also tweeted about this handle, writing that Twitter had suspended it for posting hateful comments against Islam.

We also checked the source code of archives of Ashin Wirathu’s old tweets. It contained the following unique Twitter ID: 1015627225066958848.

Handle Changed Multiple Times: @WirathuAshin/ @orianuragtiwari/ @ThePaapi

In order to unearth more details about the account and its history, Alt News used a private access tool known as Memory lol. When we put the username in this tool, we found that apart from this handle (@WirathuAshin), it had two other usernames in the past, one of which was @orianuragtiwari, and the other @ThePaapi. These were changed from time to time.

We also searched for tweets related to the username @orianuragtiwari in the web archive. Two tweets from this username were archived on July 29, 2018, and September 7, 2018 respectively. The name of this account in the archive is Anurag Tiwari. We searched for the unique Twitter ID (1015627225066958848) present in the source code of these tweets. We found that this ID exactly matched the ID of the viral account (@WirathuAshin). This is conclusive proof of the fact that the account which is now claiming to be Ashin Wirathu was previously Anurag Tiwari.

We searched for tweets related to the username (@ThePaapi) in the web archive and found a number of tweets posted by this handle. Upon checking the source code of tweets found in the archive, we discovered that this was the same account whose username was previously (@orianuragtiwari) and the name was ‘Anurag Tiwari’. Later, revisions were made to it, with its username being changed to (@ThePaapi) and its name also being swapped several times. For example, links to some of these tweets are given below along with the changes in the name.

The unique Twitter ID (1015627225066958848) in the source code of all these tweets is the same. This clearly shows that all these tweets are from the same account whose username and name were changed from time to time. Its oldest username was (@orianuragtiwari) which existed on Twitter as a user named Anurag Tiwari. Currently, this account has changed its username to (@WirathuAshin) and changed its name to Ashin Wirathu.

The Uttar Pradesh Connection

In a tweet dated July 29, 2018 found in the archive, this account had mentioned its location as Uttar Pradesh, India.

We searched for the old username of this account on X. The Uttar Pradesh Police and Kanpur Police had replied to a tweet posted by the handle @orianuragtiwari (currently @WirathuAshin) in 2018. Since the old tweets have been deleted, it is difficult to tell what the original tweet was. However, we also noticed that another account (@ptshrikant) was tagged in this reply. When we applied the date filter, we found another user’s reply stating that no one could stop the electricity supply.

With this input, we examined the work profile of @ptshrikant i.e., Shrikant Sharma, the power minister of the Uttar Pradesh government in 2018. We found that a user named Anurag had posted a complaint related to electricity on what was then Twitter, in which he had tagged Uttar Pradesh Police and the minister Shrikant Sharma. Responding to this, Uttar Pradesh Police had directed Kanpur Police to investigate the matter, and Kanpur Police had advised the user to file a written complaint at the concerned police station.

Who is Anurag Tiwari?

With the clues obtained so far, Alt News searched other social media platforms with the oldest username used by the Ashin Wirathu Twitter handle, i.e., @orianuragtiwari. We found an Instagram account with the same handle. Here, the user’s name is listed as Anurag Tiwari and his location is listed as Kanpur.

The details of this account partially match the details unearthed in our investigation. Next, we dug deeper into the six accounts that were being followed by this account. We found that one of the accounts was @theindiaflare (India Flare).

After this, we checked the account India Flare (@theindiaflare). It contained a link to a website (www.indiaflare.com) in its bio. We noticed that this handle followed only one account, that of Anurag Tiwari. It is worth noting that this is the same India Flare website that was found sharing communal disinformation targeting Muslims, and was also fact-checked by Alt News in 2018.

Alt News checked the website (indiaflare.com) and found that it was currently inactive. We also checked the source code of this website’s homepage in the archive. We found a Google Publisher ID in its code. (ca-pub-2211366945815495)

In order to run Google AdSense advertisements on any website, a HTML script is added to its code which also contains the publisher ID of the AdSense account. This ID is unique for every AdSense account.

Using tools to perform a reverse search of this publisher ID (ca-pub-2211366945815495), we discovered that there were three active websites on which this publisher ID was being used currently.

1. jagranjunction(dot)org
2. bigstark(dot)in
3. realorscam(dot)wiki

In other words, the admin of all three websites is the same person. It should also be noted that this is the same unique publisher ID that was present in the source code of the India Flare website.

Alt News examined each of the three websites one by one. The About section of one of the sites, bigstark(dot)in, contained information about a “Kasuta Arya aka Anurag Tiwari”. We also found a dedicated page on this website for Kasuta Arya which described Anurag Tiwari as a 27-year-old purported ethical hacker and cybersecurity expert. This page also stated that the founder of Big Stark was Kasuta Arya aka Anurag Tiwari.

Following this, we checked the history of this publisher ID by searching for it on the website profiling tool BuiltWith. This led us to the discovery that a total of eight such websites had been indexed here, all using this publisher ID.

Out of these, three websites are currently active which we have illustrated above. We also searched for the remaining inactive websites in the web archive and matched their source code. We found almost all of these sites present in the web archive, in which we also found the same publisher code. This made it evident that these websites were also being run by Anurag Tiwari. Many of these sites also contained the name of Anurag Tiwari. The archived links to these websites are provided below.

One detail worth noting here is that an article about Myanmar’s radical Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu was published on Anurag Tiwari’s website in 2020.

The OpIndia Connection

We used the backlink checker tool to check the connection of these websites with any other website. When we checked the backlink of one of these websites bigstark(dot)in, we found that it was getting a backlink from the website of the Right-wing propaganda outlet OpIndia.

There is an author profile of Anurag Tiwari on OpIndia’s user-generated content website. The profile contains a Twitter handle (@manuragtripathi) and a link to bigstark(dot)in. It is worth noting that this is the same website on which the profile of Kasuta Arya aka Anurag Tiwari is listed as its founder.

We checked Anurag Tiwari’s Twitter handle (@manuragtripathi) as seen on OpIndia’s website with the help of Twitter’s history search tool. There were a number of changes made to it between 2018 and 2020. In fact, in 2020, Anurag Tripathi changed this username to (@WirathuMonk).

Another profile of Kasuta Arya (Anurag Tiwari) is present on the user-generated content website of the Right-wing propaganda website OpIndia. We found another X handle (@witharya) in its bio. IndiaFlare is also seen in the URL of this page. In other words, this profile belongs to the same Anurag Tiwari who was running the misinformation-peddling website India Flare.

Upon checking the backlinks of the website byetnet(dot)com, Alt News found its link on a blog hosted by Lander University in the United States. In the comment section of this blog, this website is hyperlinked under the name Anurag Tiwari.

If one takes a closer look at the comments, one finds two comments within seconds of each other, one by Anurag Tiwari, and another by sumantiwari(dot)in.

We checked the website sumantiwari(dot)in on Web Archive and discovered that this site also belongs to Anurag Tiwari. The “About” section of this website includes a social media link to his Twitter handle (@orianuragtiwari). As pointed out earlier, this handle has since been renamed as Ashin Wirathu (@WirathuAshin).

Wikipedia

When searching for India Flare, we found a Wikipedia page that associated Anurag Tiwari with this website as its founder, stating that he was a student at Kanpur University. The page also listed a writer named Sunaina, with a hyperlinked Twitter handle (@sunainatripathi). It is worth noting that this handle was previously called (@manuragtripathi), and was later changed to (@sunainatripathi). Subsequently, it was altered again to (@WirathuMonk). The page was created by a user with the username Witharyans on December 20, 2018. Notably, a similar Twitter handle (@witharya) appears in Kasuta Arya (Anurag Tiwari)’s author profile on the Right-wing propaganda website OpIndia.

Labelled Buddhism a Derivative of Jainism

We found a blog post by Kasuta Arya in which he described Buddhism as a simplified or derivative version of Jainism. This is not the first instance where Kasuta Arya, aka Anurag Tiwari, has mocked the faith. In addition to this blog, his Instagram profile and YouTube channel also feature videos that make similar claims.

Social Media Profiles

A Google search for Kasuta Arya led us to an Instagram profile (@kasutaarya) with a link to the website bigstark(dot)in in its bio. This Instagram profile ridiculed Buddhism and labelled the Buddha as a fictional character. This is particularly interesting since on X, Anurag Tiwari ran an account under the name Ashin Wirathu, presenting himself as a follower of the Buddha. at the same time on Instagram, he dismissed the Buddha as fictional and denounced the religion.

We also found Kasuta Arya aka Anurag Tiwari’s YouTube channel in which he had described the Buddha as imaginary.

Anurag Tiwari also has two profiles on LinkedIn, in which he has listed the name ‘Bigstark’ as part of his work experience.

History of Sharing Anti-Muslim Propaganda

When in 2018, Alt News fact-checked a story by the Anurag Tiwari-run website, India Flare, we had mentioned that its Twitter handle was @IndiaFlareCom. For the present investigation, we examined the changes in this account over the years. We found that the handle name had been changed several times. In 2020, the handle was changed to Nazia Khan. The account’s bio listed the user’s location as the United States.

We searched for Nazia Khan’s handle (@NaziaKhanUSA) in the archive and found that anti-Islamic tweets were shared by this user. Looking at several of the tweets in the archives, it appears that the changes made in this account were only for peddling propaganda against Muslims. An example of a tweet shared by this handle is given below.

To sum it up, the account using the identity of controversial and radical Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu on X (@WirathuAshin) is run by an Indian user named Anurag Tiwari from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. It shares hate-filled tweets often targetting Muslims and sometimes the Kuki community from Manipur. The username and the handle name have been changed multiple times and the user is now impersonating the hardliner monk from Myanmar, Ashin Wirathu. Various websites run by and connected to Tiwari have a history of amplifying misinformation and hate against Muslims.

It is also relevant to add that the real Ashin Wirathu’s Facebook page was removed by the platform in 2018 for inflammatory posts. According to our findings, he has no direct social media presence at the moment.

This article was originally published on AltNews.