Meesho Issues Legal Notices Over Alleged 'Smear Campaign'

On June 2, a Twitter user named Ravisutanjani Kumar, who is also Vice President, Partnerships and Special Projects at Testbook, brought to Meesho Founder and CEO, Vidit Aatray's notice a series of tweets that seemed to be critical of the company while tagging its investors in a seemingly negative commentary.

It is now being alleged by Meesho that the campaigns aim us to malign the company's reputation by spreading falsehood and lies. Following the exposé, some influencers acknowledged that said tweets were paid promotions while others deleted their posts,” the company said in a statement.

Moneycontrol.com's tech, startups, and new economy editor, Chandra R. Srikanth, replied to this tweet by sharing that she too had noticed this trend on every story or quote retweet done involving Meesho. 

Soon after, Twitter users including influencers and founders posted screenshots where they are seen being approached to propogate a negative agenda against the company.

"This is not the first time that Meesho has been targeted by those with vested interests looking to defame the company. Twitter users Udita Pal and Aashima Arora voluntarily came forward to share instances from earlier this year where they were approached to put out negative tweets about the company in lieu of monetary benefits,” the company added.  

From the details that emerged the e-commerce unicorn has identified an influencer marketing company’s CEO who was allegedly involved in the smear campaign. The CEO was sent a legal cease and desist notice which demands to reveal the party on whose behest he was working, take down all defamatory content posted on his/her instructions, and tender an apology to Meesho. 

The company has also sent a legal notice to an influencer who publicly claimed to have accepted monetary compensation for promoting the negative campaign. 

"Paying influencers to peddle rumours against us has been happening for the last many months. But it won't shake our confidence, rather make us more determined towards of our mission of bringing Indian small business economy online, " said Vidit Aatray in a tweet.