India's "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model Targets Pakistan

India with its massive disinformation campaign against Pakistan, as recently revealed by EU Disinfo Lab, appears to be following what a US think tank RAND calls "Firehose of Falsehood" propaganda model. It has over 750 fake media outlets covering 119 countries. There are over 750 domain names, some in the name of dead people and others using stolen identities. Pakistani policymakers charged with countering the Indian propaganda should read the RAND report "Firehose of Falsehoods" for its 5 specific recommendations to the US government to effectively respond to the Russian disinformation campaign. In particular they should heed its key advice: "All other things being equal, messages received in greater volume and from more sources will be more persuasive.......Don't expect to counter Russia's firehose of falsehood with the squirt gun of truth. Instead, put raincoats on those at whom the firehose is aimed" 

Scale and Duration of India's Campaign:

EU Disinfo Lab, an NGO that specializes in disinformation campaigns, has found that India is carrying out a massive 15-year-long disinformation campaign to hurt Pakistan. The key objective of the Indian campaign as reported in "Indian Chronicles" is as follows: "The creation of fake media in Brussels, Geneva and across the world and/or the repackaging and dissemination via ANI and obscure local media networks – at least in 97 countries – to multiply the repetition of online negative content about countries in conflict with India, in particular Pakistan".  After the disclosure of India's anti-Pakistan propaganda campaign, Washington-based US analyst Michael Kugelman tweeted: "The scale and duration of the EU/UN-centered Indian disinformation campaign exposed by @DisinfoEU is staggering. Imagine how the world would be reacting if this were, say, a Russian or Chinese operation".  

American Analyst Michael Kugelman's Tweet on Indian Disinformation ...

Firehose of Falsehood:

What Kugelman calls "Russian Operation" appears to be a reference to a US government-funded think tank RAND Corporation's report entitled "The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model". Here is an excerpt of the RAND report:

"Russian propaganda is produced in incredibly large volumes and is broadcast or otherwise distributed via a large number of channels. This propaganda includes text, video, audio, and still imagery propagated via the Internet, social media, satellite television, and traditional radio and television broadcasting. The producers and disseminators include a substantial force of paid Internet “trolls” who also often attack or undermine views or information that runs counter to Russian themes, doing so through online chat rooms, discussion forums, and comments sections on news and other websites".

EU Disinformation Lab Report on India's Disinformation Campaign Against Pakistan

Indian Political Unity Against Pakistan:  

Former US President Barack Obama has observed that “Expressing hostility toward Pakistan was still the quickest route to national unity (in India)”.  The Indian disinformation campaign is a manifestation of Indians' political unity against Pakistan.  EU Disinfo Lab has found that Indian Chronicles is a 15-year-long campaign that started in 2005 on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's watch, well before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election to India's highest office in 2014. It has grown to over 750 fake media outlets covering 119 countries. There are over 750 domain names, some in the name of dead people and others using stolen identities.  Here is an excerpt of EU Disinfo Lab's report:

"The creation of fake media in Brussels, Geneva and across the world and/or the repackaging and dissemination via ANI and obscure local media networks – at least in 97 countries – to multiply the repetition of online negative content about countries in conflict with India, in particular Pakistan". 

RAND's Recipe:  
Traditional countermeasures are ineffective against "firehose of falsehoods" propaganda techniques. As researchers Christopher Paul and Miriam Mathews of RAND put it: "Don't expect to counter the firehose of falsehood with the squirt gun of truth." They suggest:
1. Repeating the counter-information 
2. Providing an alternative story to fill in the gaps created when false "facts" are removed 
2. Forewarning people about propaganda, highlighting the ways propagandists manipulate public opinion. 
3.  Countering the effects of propaganda, rather than the propaganda itself; for example, to counter propaganda that undermines support for a cause, work to boost support for that cause rather than refuting the propaganda directly 
5. Turning off the flow by enlisting the aid of Internet service providers and social media services, and conducting electronic warfare and cyberspace operation
Summary: 
India with its massive disinformation campaign against Pakistan appears to be following what a US think tank RAND calls "Firehose of Falsehoods". Pakistani policymakers charged with countering the Indian propaganda should read the RAND report "Firehose of Falsehoods" for its 5 specific recommendations to the US government to effectively respond to the Russian disinformation campaign. In particular they should heed its key advice: "All other things being equal, messages received in greater volume and from more sources will be more persuasive.......Don't expect to counter Russia's firehose of falsehoods with the squirt gun of truth. Instead, put raincoats on those at whom the firehose is aimed" 

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Comment by Riaz Haq on May 4, 2022 at 7:09am

#Google picks former #Modi think-tank official as #India policy head. Last year, #Meta Platforms Inc (#Facebook) hired Rajiv Aggarwal - who spent years working in India's federal and state governments. #BJP #Hindutva #SocialMedia https://www.reuters.com/world/india/google-picks-former-modi-think-...


NEW DELHI, May 4 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google has hired a new public policy head in India, Archana Gulati, who previously worked at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's federal think-tank and the country's antitrust watchdog, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

A number of Indian government officials have been hired by Big Tech companies which are battling tighter data and privacy regulation, as well as competition law scrutiny, under Modi's federal government.


Gulati is a long-term Indian government employee, having worked until March 2021 as a joint secretary for digital communications at Modi's federal think tank, Niti Aayog, a body that is critical to government's policy making across sectors.

Before that, between 2014 and 2016, she worked as a senior official at India's antitrust body, the Competition Commission of India, according to her LinkedIn profile.



A Google India spokesperson confirmed the development to Reuters, but did not elaborate. Gulati did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The source declined to be named as the hiring decision was not public.

India's antitrust watchdog is currently looking into Google's business conduct in the market of smart TVs, its Android operating system as well as its in-app payments system.

Last year, Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O) hired Rajiv Aggarwal - who spent years working in India's federal and state governments - as its head of policy.


Another former Indian antitrust and federal government official, Anand Jha, in 2019 joined Walmart (WMT.N) as India public policy officer. He currently manages government relations for Blackstone in India.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 27, 2022 at 11:09am
The two men were unlikely candidates to work in the news business.
Neither had a background in journalism, but both were alarmed with the surge of misinformation in India that followed the rise of Narendra Modi as the Hindu nationalist prime minister. To take on this problem, the men, both engineers, started Alt News in 2017.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/world/asia/india-debunking-fake-...


Led by its founders, Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha, Alt News has criticized supporters and officials of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for their statements targeting minorities.

But in a reflection of the growing concerns about the independence and freedom of the news media in India, Mr. Zubair has landed in the authorities’ cross hairs. He has been arrested on charges of hurting religious sentiments and is being investigated by the police after anonymous critics and B.J.P. officials accused him of spreading communal unrest.

“People in power want to shut me up for exposing their propaganda, their lies and their hate campaigns,” Mr. Zubair, 40, said in an interview. “They want to scare other journalists and activists by targeting me.”

Mr. Zubair, a Muslim, said that rather than amplifying misinformation and hate speech, he was trying to highlight them so the authorities could take action. Still, he worried for his family’s safety this summer as #arrestzubair trended on Twitter. He temporarily stopped his children from riding their bicycles outside and from going to school.

The media landscape in India started to change when Mr. Modi came to power in 2014. His party realized the potential of reaching voters directly via social media and spent millions of dollars to mold public perception on platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.

Critics say that engagement, and later copycat efforts from other political parties, lacked the filter of a traditional news organization and targeted millions of people who were using the internet for the first time.

“I could also see that propaganda was building up and how misinformation was part of that,” said Mr. Sinha, then a software engineer in Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat, who started debunking misleading photographs. He was not the first person in his family to take on Mr. Modi’s acolytes; his parents were activists who had faulted Mr. Modi for not doing enough to stop violence against Muslims in the deadly Gujarat riots of 2002, when he was chief minister of the state.

Around the same time in Bangalore, Mr. Zubair, an engineer from a family of farmers, was also taken aback by the increasing spread of misinformation among Indians. His first attempt at tackling the problem was with satire, creating a social media account that was a parody of a leader of India’s governing party. His musings attracted an audience, and soon he crossed paths with Mr. Sinha.


-----------

At the Ahmedabad office one recent morning, Mr. Zubair, Mr. Sinha and the rest of the team huddled to discuss which news and information to track, prioritizing whatever might have the potential to cause harm. They scoured WhatsApp groups for leads. Mrs. Sinha worked with an accountant on Alt News’s finances.

Nearby, another employee, Kinjal Parmar, replayed a viral video of a mob beating a man viciously, frame by frame. Soon she reaffirmed the conclusion her co-workers had reached: The footage was of a personal dispute, not of a Muslim man’s lynching. Next, she posted an article on the Alt News site that corrected the record, reducing the chances that the video would inflame communal tensions.

Ms. Parmar, who trained as a journalist, said no special skills were needed to be a fact checker, except an eye for spotting what’s amiss. She said the work was a mission for her.

“Our job entails providing every citizen the right to correct information,” she said. “And in times of so much fake information, it becomes all the more important in a democracy like India.”
Comment by Riaz Haq on November 28, 2022 at 10:17am

Video: Indian Film Festival IFFI Jury Head Calls 'Kashmir Files' "Vulgar"
Calling it "propaganda" and a "vulgar movie", Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, who headed the IFFI jury, said "all of them" were "disturbed and shocked" to see the film screened at the festival.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/film-festival-iffi-jury-head-calls-...

New Delhi: The jury of 53rd International Film Festival in Goa has slammed the controversial movie "The Kashmir Files", which revolves around the killings and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 from Kashmir Valley. Calling it "propaganda" and a "vulgar movie", Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid, who headed the IFFI jury, said "all of them" were "disturbed and shocked" to see the film screened at the festival.
"It seemed to us like a propagandist movie inappropriate for an artistic, competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel totally comfortable to share openly these feelings here with you on stage. Since the spirit of having a festival is to accept also a critical discussion which is essential for art and for life," Mr Lapid said in his address.

The Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi starrer, directed by Vivek Agnihotri, was featured in the "Panorama" section of the festival last week.


The film has been praised by the BJP and has been declared tax-free in most BJP-ruled states and was a box office hit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have praised on the movie.

Many, however, have criticised the content, calling it a one-sided portrayal of the events that is sometimes factually incorrect and claiming the movie has a "propagandist tone".

In May, Singapore banned the movie, citing concerns over its "potential to cause enmity between different communities".

"The film will be refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the ongoing conflict in Kashmir," read a statement from the Singapore government, reported news agency Press Trust of India.

Mr Agnihotri has alleged an "international political campaign" against him and his film by foreign media.

He claimed this was the reason his press conference was cancelled by the Foreign Correspondents Club and the Press Club of India in May.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 5, 2022 at 4:18pm

Hindu Nationalists often quote known fake sites set up by their Hindutva friends. These sites have now been fully exposed.

Both Op India and thedisinfolab.org are part of the Hindutva disinformation campaigns to spew hatred against Muslims.

OpIndia is a propaganda outlet controlled by BJP.

OpIndia: Hate speech, vanishing advertisers, and an undisclosed BJP connection
Ashok Kumar Gupta, the director of OpIndia’s holding company, has had affiliations with the Sangh Parivar.

https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/06/23/opindia-hate-speech-vanishin...

“In India, politics and journalism attract some of the worst brains, thanks to the system that has evolved over time,” read the About Us section of OpIndia, a popular Hindu supremacist website, in December 2014, nearly a year after it was launched. “OpIndia.com is an attempt to break free of this system.”


https://thedisinfolab.org is a clone of EU Disinfo Lab set up by Hindu Nationalists to fool the world.

The real EU Disinfo Lab website is https://www.disinfo.eu/

Here's a link to the REAL Disinfo Lab: https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/indian-chronicles-deep-dive-int...

Indian Chronicles: deep dive into a 15-year operation targeting the EU and UN to serve Indian interests

Following a preliminary investigation published in 2019, the EU DisinfoLab uncovered a massive operation targeting international institutions and serving Indian interests. “Indian Chronicles” – the name we gave to this operation – resurrected dead media, dead think-tanks and NGOs. It even resurrected dead people. This network is active in Brussels and Geneva in producing and amplifying content to undermine – primarily – Pakistan.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 5, 2022 at 6:31pm

Irony: Indians clone EU Disinfo Lab website in propaganda push

Disinformation Campaign on Twitter: Pro-India accounts ...
https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Disin...


Indian Chronicles: deep dive into a 15-year operation targeting the EU and UN to serve Indian interests.
https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/indian-chronicles-deep-dive-int...


Disinfo Lab: An Online Hindu Nationalist Disinformation ...
https://bylinetimes.com/2022/02/09/disinfo-lab-an-online-hindu-nati...
Feb 9, 2022 — CJ Werleman looks at evidence of a co-ordinated and sophisticated effort to smear critics of the right wing Indian Prime Minister.


Pro-Indian 'fake websites targeted decision makers in Europe'
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50749764
Dec 16, 2019 — A global network of pro-Indian fake websites and think-tanks is aimed at influencing decision-making in Europe, researchers say.

The co-ordinated network of 265 sites operates across 65 countries, according to a report by EU Disinfo Lab, a Brussels-based NGO.

The researchers traced the websites to an Indian company, Srivastava Group.

The network was also found to involve groups responsible for anti-Pakistan lobbying events in Europe


Disinformation Campaign on Twitter: Pro-India accounts ...
https://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Disin...
Oct 22, 2020 — On the eve and day of October 21, 2020, there was a flurry of pro-India Twitter accounts creating the narrative that there was a ‘civil war’ unfolding in Pakistan




The dead professor and the vast pro-India disinformation ...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55232432
Dec 10, 2020 — The EU DisinfoLab researchers, who are based in Brussels, believe the network's purpose is to disseminate propaganda against India's neighbour ...


Indian Chronicles: EU Think Tank Claims to Have Uncovered 15-Year-Old Pro-India Influence Operation
https://www.newshoundindia.foundation/blog-details.asp?id=514
Dec 12, 2020 — A European Union (EU) non-profit group researching disinformation campaigns claims to have unearthed a 2005 influence operation “targeting international institutions and serving Indian interests”, which carried out by “dead media, dead think-tanks and NGOs” and in some cases, “dead people”.

“It is the largest network we have exposed,” said Alexandre Alaphilippe, executive director of EU DisinfoLab (DL) to the BBC. He added, “It was designed primarily to discredit Pakistan internationally and influence decision-making at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and European Parliament.”

That study began as a probe into possible Russian disinformation when articles published on Russia Today were republished on a website, ‘EP Today’, which led the investigators to the network of sites and NGOs, largely linked to the New Delhi-based Srivastava Group (SG).


Irony: Indians clone EU Disinfo Lab website in propaganda push
https://www.samaaenglish.tv/news/2515024
Feb 12, 2022 — Australian journalist exposes forgery, gets Twitter to remove verified status

In December 2020, the EU Disinfo Lab exposed a network of Indian websites pushing false information across the internet. In an ironic turn of events, Indians now have cloned the Disinfo Lab website to advance their propaganda, targetting Muslims and specifically Pakistanis and Kashmiris.


The Indian clone of Disinfo Lab became active soon after the EU Disinfo Lab first published a preliminary investigation in 2019 and then in December 2020 released the “Indian Chronicles,” a report detailing 750 "fake media outlest", fake editors and journalists, UN-accredited NGOs, and cases of identity theft to target Pakistan.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 5, 2022 at 6:37pm

#Ukraine #drone attack hits 2 military bases deep inside #Russia. The unprecedented strikes were the first time Ukraine has hit so far into Russia, targeting air bases that had generally been thought of as untouchable. - ABC News

https://abcnews.go.com/International/ukraine-drone-attack-hits-2-mi...

Explosions that struck two military airbases deep inside Russia on Monday were the result of drone attacks launched by Ukraine, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials, in what appeared to be an audacious attempt to hit the long-range bombers Russia has used to devastate Ukraine’s power grid.

Russia’s defense ministry on Monday confirmed the attacks on the bases that are located hundreds of miles from the frontline, saying two of its aircraft were damaged and three military personnel killed.

The unprecedented strikes were the first time Ukraine has hit so far into Russia, targeting bases that had generally been thought of as untouchable, according to military experts.

A senior Ukrainian official from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s circle, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told ABC News that Ukrainian drones had struck the Russian military airfields Monday.

Russian media reported an explosion early Monday morning at the Engels-2 airbase in the Saratov region in southern Russia, a key airfield that houses Tu-95 and Tu-60 nuclear-capable bombers.

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 6, 2022 at 11:30am

Digital Disinformation in India: An Attack on Mental Autonomy

Feb 18, 2022 — In India, the spread of disinformation or fake news is neither unintentional nor inconsequential. It is a carefully orchestrated operation, ...

Hate in the Time of the Virus: Covid-19, Fake News, and Islamophobia in India

Jul 28, 2022 — The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a new wave of Islamophobic rhetoric in India. Focusing on the aftermath of the March 2020 Tablighi Jamaat event, Anirban Baishya, with funding from the SSRC’s Rapid-Response Covid-19 grant, investigates how mis/disinformation and anti-Muslim messages spread through media, jumping from social media to mainstream outlets.

How did India become a fake news hotspot? | DW News

Aug 11, 2022 — Low digital literacy, political and religious biases, as well as the functionality of social media platforms have turned India into a hub for fake news. But how can this be countered?

Fake News, Quackery Mar India's COVID Fight but Government is Doing Nothing About Infodemic - The Wire

May 23, 2021 — While social media is full of disinformation about COVID-19, none of which has prompted corrective measures from the government, the IT ministry's only warning on 'false news' and misinformation is on the use of the term 'Indian variant' for B.1.167.

India & COVID-19: Misinformation and the Downside of Social Media


https://theasiadialogue.com/2020/04/06/india-covid-19-misinformatio...
Apr 6, 2020 — As the world fights COVID-19 (coronavirus), the online public sphere across the world is witnessing unprecedented misinformation and fake news. Misinformation is contributing to paranoia and making the fight against COVID-19 even tougher. The situation in India provides a prominent example.

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 19, 2023 at 7:36pm

Fake News, India | Zubair Home Free | 52 Documentary

https://youtu.be/V19GetIhVvk

Two engineers in India chose to leave their lucrative careers and form a media company to fight against the dangerous spread of misinformation. Despite facing abuses and threats, and even arrest and imprisonment, Mohamed Zubair and Pratik Sinha have carried on debunking all forms of misinformation, especially politically motivated misinformation.

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 21, 2023 at 5:31pm

India has more fake news than any other country in the world: Survey
https://www.businessinsider.in/india-has-more-fake-news-than-any-ot...

Nearly 60% of Indians had seen fake news against the global average of 57%, said a recent survey.
Overall, India ranked seventh in Microsoft’s ‘Digital Civility’ Index.
It found that the spread of online risks by family and friends in India have been increasing sharply by nine percentage points to 29%.
Fake news continues to be a growing menace in India, which has seen the most number of fake news incidents compared to anywhere else in the world, a recent survey by Microsoft has warned.

Over 60% of Indians said they had seen fake news online against the global average of 57%, according to findings of a survey by Microsoft.

More than half of the surveyed respondents also said they had faced Internet hoaxes, a figure that was significantly higher than the global average of 50%. While another 42% said they had witnessed phishing or spoofing, according to the survey.

Microsoft released its 3rd ‘Digital Civility Index,’ which measures patterns in online civility and behavioral risk in 22 countries including India. As per the survey, India ranked 7th in Digital Civility Index globally.

The survey studied a number of online risks such as attempts at gathering personal information, online bullying, unwelcome messages seeking sexual favours, and misinformation and fake news.

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 21, 2023 at 5:32pm

Hindutva supporters love to quote OpIndia which is among the largest purveyors of hate speech and fake news.


https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/06/23/opindia-hate-speech-vanishin...


OpIndia: Hate speech, vanishing advertisers, and an undisclosed BJP connection
newslaundry.com

And yet, as of June 2020, about two dozen companies have withdrawn advertisements from OpIndia, citing “insidious content” and “hateful views”, as part of a campaign by Stop Funding Hate, an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom. Moreover, despite its complaints about dishonesty and distortion in the India media, OpIndia has never disclosed that the director of the company which owns it, and its holding company, has had ties to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

In a 2014 interview with Swarajya, Rahul Raj, one of the three founders of OpIndia, explained the website’s raison d'être in greater detail. “These days when I look into posts by the media, I can clearly see that they are manipulating people. They are working as propaganda machines,” Raj said, adding that he wanted to “decode” why news consumers had to rely on media that was out to manipulate them. OpIndia, in his words, was started to explore the gap between “what is being reported and what the facts are”.

Six years down the line, OpIndia has morphed from a “media commentary” blog tilting towards the governing BJP into a website promoting and defending Hindu supremacy and chauvinism, and a vibrant source of misinformation targeting Muslims, liberals, leftists, “the establishment”, and critics and political opponents of the BJP.

A dataset prepared by Newslaundry shows that in the last two years alone, fact-checkers and news outlets have reported at least 25 instances of false news and no less than 14 instances of misreporting on OpIndia. In 2019, Rahul Raj, no longer associated with the website, tweeted that he had “distanced” himself from the website because it became a “blind mouthpiece of BJP”.

In May, the website was booked by the Bihar police for introducing a fabricated communal angle to the death of a 15-year-old boy in Gopalganj district. OpIndia had done a series of reports alleging that the minor had been killed in a “human sacrifice” ritual, supposedly to make a local mosque more powerful. The police clarified that the village did not have a mosque. In response, Rahul Roushan, OpIndia’s CEO, sulkedthat the website was facing “harassment” and “a coordinated attack from the usual suspects” and that the “only mistake” the website’s editors made “was that they were standing on the wrong side of the ideological divide”.

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