Kashmiri journalist
Raqib Hameed Naik (born 1995) is a Kashmiri journalist. In 2020, he relocated to the United States. He is the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. He also founded Hindutva Watch, a research project that documents hate crimes and hate speeches against religious minorities in India, and India Hate Lab, which studies hate speech, disinformation, and conspiracy theories targeting religious minorities. 
Naik is the Pulitzer Center grantee. He has been featured and quoted in various news outlets, including "The Washington Post", "The Wall Street Journal", "The Guardian", "The Intercept", "American Kahani", "BBC", "Daily Express UK", "Tech Crunch", "Forbes", "Voice of America", "Vox", "Wired", "PBS", "NPR", "LA Times", "Al Jazeera", "Reuters", "Rolling Stone" and "The Chenab Times".
Early life and education.
Raqib was born to Kashmiri parents in Jammu and Kashmir. He did his early schooling Sri Ranbir Higher Secondary School Jammu. He moved to Srinagar to complete his under graduation from Amar Singh College. He then attended Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and University of Bolton, UK for Masters in Public Administration and International Multimedia Journalism, respectively.
Career.
Raqib started his career as a staff reporter with Twocircles.net, where he stayed until 2017. In his early career, he was based in Kashmir. Later he reported from different Indian states. He was guest editor at Beyond Headlines. In 2018, he joined The Globe Post as its Indian correspondent.
X Censorship Case.
In January 2024, the Indian government geo-blocked the X (formerly Twitter) handle of Hindutva Watch, followed by the blocking of its website along with India Hate Lab. The government issued blocking notices under Section 69A of the controversial Information Technology Act.
In April 2024, Naik petitioned the Delhi High Court to challenge the illegal, arbitrary, and disproportionate blocking of Hindutva Watch’s X account and both websites. The petition named the Union of India and X Corp, the company owned by Elon Musk that manages X.
In September 2024, X Corp, for the first time in India, filed an affidavit in the Delhi High Court in support of Naik, calling the Indian government’s blocking order a “disproportionate and unreasonable restriction.”
Awards.
Raqib won the Aminah Assilmi Award in Media Excellence in 2021 and has been shortlisted for the Thomson Foundation Award.
References.
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