How India Uses Covert Network to Discredit Pakistan and China: Report
The investigation shows that the operation’s mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular Pakistan but also China to a lesser extent.
By RMN News Service
An independent non-profit organization EU DisinfoLab has released a report which claims that a massive operation is targeting international institutions clandestinely to serve Indian interests.
EU DisinfoLab – which claims to uncover sophisticated disinformation campaigns targeting the EU and its Member States – released a report “Indian Chronicles” on Wednesday (December 9) that details the activities of the covert operation.
The report reveals that a network which is active in Brussels and Geneva has resurrected dead media, dead think-tanks, and NGOs to produce and amplify content with the aim to mainly discredit Pakistan.
According to EU DisinfoLab, its open-source investigation shows that the operation’s mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular Pakistan but also China to a lesser extent. Its long-term objective is to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan (and anti-Chinese) feelings in India to consolidate the power and improve the perception of India in the international arena.
India has some major disagreements with Pakistan particularly over the issue of Kashmir, which is a disputed territory between the two neighboring nations. Similarly, India and China are enemy nations and recently China has forcibly occupied large swathes of Indian land while India has failed to take its territory back from China.
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The operation also aims to damage the reputation of other countries, and ultimately benefit from more support from international institutions such as the EU and the UN.
REVEALED: Indian Chronicles – how a massive 15-year influence operation successfully targeted the EU & UN with 750+ fake local media and 10+ zombie-NGOs.
Executive Summary & full report: https://t.co/W3IAxQTOqZ
Here are the facts 👇 (1/n) pic.twitter.com/eXW6bh48gv— EU DisinfoLab (@DisinfoEU) December 9, 2020
In order to achieve its objectives, the operation coordinates with the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to create a mirage of institutional support from European institutions in favour of Indian interests and against Pakistan (and China).
The EU DisinfoLab report adds that the network has an active presence in Geneva and the United Nations’ Human Rights Council through side-events and demonstrations in support of minority rights.
The network members also use impersonation tactics of using extinguished UN-accredited NGOs or use speaking slots reserved to various NGOs whose original missions seem totally unrelated.
Its activities include the creation of fake media in Brussels, Geneva, and across the world and/or repackaging and dissemination of fake information via obscure local media networks – at least in 97 countries.
The operation intends to multiply the repetition of online negative content about countries in conflict with India, in particular Pakistan.
A BBC report of December 10 adds that EU DisinfoLab partially exposed the network last year but it claims that now the operation is much larger and more resilient than it first suspected.
