From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: With free speech under assault at home, ostensibly in the guise of combating fake news, India has paradoxically emerged as a major purveyor of misleading content aimed at discrediting foreign adversaries. Across borders, a far-reaching network of disinformation, supported by deceptive pro-India news outlets and fake NGOs, has also been actively involved in shaping global perceptions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government for more than a decade. In 2020, a damning report by the EU DisinfoLab uncovered a sophisticated misinformation network that had been active for over 15 years. The Brussels-based non-profit, dedicated to combating misinformation within the European Union, revealed extensive operations comprising over 260 pro-Indian local news sites spanning across more than 65 countries.
Traced back to the New Delhi-based Srivastava Group, this expansive web of disinformation was created to discredit India’s rivals, mainly Pakistan and China. Furthermore, EU DisinfoLab detailed the operation’s broader objectives, which included influencing decision-making processes within international bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the European Parliament in favour of the Indian government’s official narrative. The network, according to the findings, engaged in various fraudulent tactics, including the resurrection of defunct NGOs at the UN, impersonation of experts, and the laundering of content from fake media to real media outlets, thereby reaching millions across South Asia and beyond.
In its findings, the EU DisinfoLab singled out the Srivastava Group—a suspicious business conglomerate—and Asian News International, India’s largest video news agency and a local partner of Reuters, as key players in the global misinformation campaign. Both rely heavily on amplifying content and disinformation campaigns to further Indian narratives – particularly those in favour of the BJP administration.
The Srivastava Group, operating through its intricate web of fake news networks, has spearheaded numerous pro-India campaigns worldwide, particularly those aligned with the BJP administration. According to findings by the EU DisinfoLab, this shadowy entity has gone as far as establishing think tanks to advocate for the Modi government. A year prior to the release of the DisinfoLab’s report, researchers scrutinised the Srivastava Group for orchestrating a visit by far-right Members of the European Parliament to Indian-occupied Kashmir. It was revealed that these visits were organised by the International Institute of Non-Aligned Studies (IINS), a think tank established by the Srivastava Group in Brussels. These events unfolded shortly after the occupied region was deprived of its special status and was subjected to a security and communications lockdown by the far-right government in New Delhi.
