The EU DisinfoLab has revealed its latest investigation into anti-Pakistan/China influence operations and this follows up on two previous investigations published in 2019 and 2020.
What does this investigation do and which is the errant agency?
Essentially expose fake source organisations named as “sources”, non-existent experts and bloggers that are regularly touted by the Indian agency, ANI that plays a heightened role in India’s news eco system especially since 2014.
The investigation that can be read here looks into a number of non-existent organisations, bloggers and journalists who are regularly quoted by Asian News International (ANI). Who is ANI? ANI is an Indian news agency that plays a relevant role in the country’s information ecosystem, providing content for many well-established media across India, such as The Print and Business Standard. ANI’s articles are also reproduced on well-known digital portals such as Yahoo News. With this network, ANI acts as the carrier of news to millions of Indians.
Even before, ANI had previously been accused of reporting the Indian government’s ‘version of truth’ by independent magazine The Caravan. Moreover, two previous EU DisinfoLab investigations have revealed that ANI regularly quoted the defunct ‘EP Today’ and ‘EU Chronicles’, two fake media outlets supposedly specialising in EU affairs that were, in fact, created to push anti-Pakistan/China narratives in India.
EU DisinfoLab’s investigation concludes that:
ANI has been repeatedly quoting a think tank that was dissolved in 2014 and therefore no longer exists.
ANI has been using quotes from a journalist, as well as from several bloggers and supposed geopolitical experts, who do not exist.
Fake personae, self-described as James Bond fans, basketball players and management consultants, became geopolitical experts quoted by ANI numerous times on topics such as Pakistan’s army doctrines and China’s ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’.
Interestingly, a think tank, that we had previously linked to the Srivastava group and that was legally dissolved in 2014, is now quoted about twice a week by ANI. The think tank’s website falsely mentions real Canadian university professors as participants in a conference that they never attended, even concocting false quotes by these academics. EU DisinfoLab had already observed this identity-hijacking pattern in our previous Indian Chronicles investigation.
The false narratives pushed by these fake personae and/or organisations are almost entirely about criticising Pakistan and China, countries that are not India’s greatest allies on the international stage. These fake experts or think tanks are quoted almost solely by ANI and then republished across several Indian media outlets. Besides ANI and those outlets republishing its content, barely any other established media covered the reports produced by these ‘Bad Sources’ (BS) – the name we gave to this investigation.
Hence, the assessment that ANI has, at least, failed its readership by not respecting the fundamentals of the Charter of Munich. The fact that some of the ‘organisations’ mentioned use fake personae and are trying to hide their tracks while counting on being regularly quoted by ANI shows that ANI is, de facto, playing a key role in this influence operation.
Forbidden Stories and their media partners have also worked on this investigation.
The Wire has reported that the latest report centres on the website of a Canadian-based think tank, International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS). ANI quoted IFFRAS more than 200 times between May 2021 and January 2023. “In most instances, it was not only quoting but using IFFRAS ‘reports’ as the backbone of the articles,” the report says.
Though IFFRAS was dissolved in 2014, its website remained online and was being updated. EU DisinfoLab said that the same IP address hosted the IFFRAS website and other websites from the Srivastava group.
The report said that it tried to trace the speakers mentioned in the conference summaries on the website, but most seemed not to exist at all. “Our guess is that the sole purpose of the IFFRAS is to produce content that can be covered by ANI and then republished widely throughout the Indian press,” said the report
Wondering if IFFRAS was a “single rotten apple”, the EU DisinfoLab researchers then looked into other foreign experts at ‘think tanks’ that are mentioned frequently by ANI. They came across the Policy Research Group (POREG), whose “geopolitical experts” were quoted frequently by ANI on issues like Pakistan’s army doctrines and Chinese foreign policy.
The report claimed that despite numerous efforts to contact these experts with names like ‘James Duglous Crickton’, ‘Magda Lipan’ – sometimes misspelled as Magad Lipan or Magda Lipin – and ‘Ms Valentin Popescu’, they did not seem to be available.
“Yet somehow, despite the laughable misspellings and bios, these James Bond fans, basketball players and management consultants have become geopolitical experts, quoted by ANI numerous times,” the report says.
A third organistaion which ANI started quoted reports in 2021 were published by the Center of Political and Foreign Affairs (CPFA), a think tank based in France and registered in Hong Kong which genuinely exists. But, alongside the legitimate reports by the CPFA team, ANI was publishing content that EU DisinfoLab “could not attribute to real individuals”.
Did the DisinfoLab tried to get their version ? Yes! The authors of the report said they again tried to reach out to two “experts” who were ostensibly working at CPFA but “did not receive any response to our requests”.
According to the report, the fake entities and personalities, seemingly based in Europe and North America, were probably propped up as “a way of bringing more credibility and legitimacy to these narratives”, which “almost entirely” were about criticising Pakistan and China.
“Thus, the actors involved seem to prefer using badly constructed fake profiles or fake organisations, even when previously uncovered, rather than relying on real organisations and people,” said the report.
“Worse still, ANI does not seem to be concerned by being the only major agency quoting them as a primary source. In other words, journalists working at ANI must know these sources are fabricated – and if they don’t, they are failing as journalists. In fact, who really cares?” the report asks.
EU DisinforLab also concluded that ANI has “at least, failed its readership by not respecting the fundamentals of the Charter of Munich”. It added, “The fact that some of the ‘organisations’ mentioned use fake personae and are trying to hide their tracks while counting on being regularly quoted by ANI shows that ANI is, de facto, playing a key role in this influence operation.”
The latest EU DisinfoLab report was released in conjunction with the “Story Killers” project to investigate the disinformation-for-hire-
ANI was set up as Asian Films Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. in 1971, and was renamed ANI in the 1990s. Though questions have been raised about ANI’s independence and the veracity of its reports, it has remained the most popular source of information for Indian media organisations. Reuters held a 49% stake in ANI until December 2022, when it was forced to reduce its shares to comply with revised rules on foreign direct investment in media platforms.
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