Fake News | SabrangIndia News Related to Human Rights Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:21:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 https://sabrangindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Favicon_0.png Fake News | SabrangIndia 32 32 Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) did not demand land of Hindu temples; former Chairperson DMC https://sabrangindia.in/delhi-minorities-commission-dmc-did-not-demand-land-of-hindu-temples-former-chairperson-dmc/ Tue, 24 Sep 2024 10:21:59 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=37978 The author of this report, a former Chairperson of the Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) rebuts the malicious campaign while detailing the report brought out under his aegis’; this rebuttal exposes an entrenched ‘Godi media’ campaign of lies under the guise of the report of the Delhi Minorities Commission

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]]> Godi media channels and websites are carrying out a systematic propaganda campaign these days. It is claimed that Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) and Delhi Waqf Board (DWB) want to grab Hindu temple lands. Nothing can be farther from the truth and the detailed records bear this out.

This propaganda is an attempt to derail the current discussion on misguided Waqf Bill. This campaign falsely claims that the DMC has suggested and DWB has demanded lands of Hindu temples. The fact is that neither DMC nor DWB ever suggested or demanded that temples built on Waqf land be demolished or their land be returned to the DWB. This is an unmitigated lie.

The DMC report of 2019 on some West Delhi mosques (https://archive.org/details/dmc-report-on-illegal-mosques-delhi) was prepared to examine the claim of the then BJP MP Mr Parvesh Verma that “illegal” mosques have been built in his parliamentary constituency and that such mosques should be demolished.

Mr Parvesh Verma had sent his complaint to the Delhi Lt. Governor in June 2019 claiming that 54 “illegal” mosques have cropped up in his constituency (West Delhi) during the last 20 years. He demanded that action should be taken against these mosques. In other words, he wanted these mosques be demolished. When no action was taken on his complaint, Mr Verma re-sent his complaint to the L.G. the next month.

On the publication of reports in the media about this communication to the L.G. by Mr Verma, as the then Chairman of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC), I formed a 5-member committee consisting of two Muslims, two Christians and a Sikh. All of them were reputed members of society and were active in legal and human rights fields. The committee inspected all the mosques on the list provided by Mr Verma, inspected their papers and finally presented a detailed report to the Commission saying that none of these mosques is illegal while some of them were centuries-old and thus protected as ancient monuments. At the same time, the Committee came across a number of illegal temples found in the vicinity of the so-called “illegal” mosques and at times built on the same plot of land as the mosques.

In its report, the Committee mentioned these temples along with their locations and photographs, although Mr Verma had missed them.

Copies of the said DMC report were sent to the L.G., Delhi Chief Minister and even to Mr Parvesh Verma himself. The report was also released to the media during a press conference. Thereafter, Mr Verma never raised that issue. Now, after five years, Zee News suddenly remembered that report but (deliberately) potrayed this in a skewed, totally wrong context. Zee News presented it claiming that DWB wants to grab temple lands, while the report only passingly mentioned that some temples in the vicinity of the so-called illegal mosques stood on Waqf lands.

Our committee had inspected each and every mosque on Mr Verma’s list and found that no mosque in the list was “illegal”. All were legal while some were centuries-old. During its visits, the Committee came across illegal temples found in the area and discovered that some of them were built on Waqf lands. The Committee registered this fact in its report but did not make any demand on the said lands of the illegal temples. The DWB too did not stake any claim on such lands.

The propaganda aired by an entranced, ‘godi media’ now is totally concocted, brazenly motivated. This campaign obscures the real purpose and findings of the said report. It is an attempt to misdirect the current discussion on the Waqf issue and pave the way to drastic changes in the Waqf law as planned by the Modi government.

A few days back a reporter of Zee News phoned me saying that next day they are holding a panel discussion on the issue on their channel. He wanted me to participate in the said discussion. I apologized saying that for the last four and a half years I do not talk to Godi media due to bitter past experiences about its bias and lies. The said reporter quickly apologised and ended the call.

Next day a reporter of Zee Salam, the Urdu section of Zee News, phoned me for an interview. I repeated what I told earlier to his colleague. He assured me that Zee Salam is different and that my interview will be carried in full with no cuts. After this, I accepted to meet him. He came in the evening and recorded a long interview with me in which I explained the gist and the circumstances and the result of the DMC report and how it is being twisted now. I also gave him a printed copy of the said DMC report. That interview was not carried that night. Upon my enquiry, the reporter told me that the interview will be carried next day. On the following day, Zee News assembled six persons including three saffron-clad Hindutvites. The panel included an advocate who was a member of the said DMC committee. He tried to explain the issue but was not allowed by the anchor to complete his explanation while time was amply given to others including a saffron-clad sadhu who bluntly announced that if you take the land of one temple, we will take ten mosques!

Later, a reporter of a Hindi newspaper talked to me on the same issue but I ended the call when, instead of listening to me, he kept blurting out his understanding of the issue on the Godi media lines.

This propaganda continues on various Godi media and Hindutva platforms. The fact is that these people are not after truth. They can utter any lie in order to serve their agenda. The agenda is dangerous and divisive, to generate lies, half-truths about India’s minorities, the Muslims. 

(The author is a former Chairman, Delhi Minorities Commission)

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]]> Chaos in Bangladesh provides opportunity to right-wing social media to spread misinformation regarding Hindus, temples being attacked in the country https://sabrangindia.in/chaos-in-bangladesh-provides-opportunity-to-right-wing-social-media-to-spread-misinformation-regarding-hindus-temples-being-attacked-in-the-country/ Tue, 06 Aug 2024 11:28:19 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=37107 False news regarding rape of Hindu women, arson of Hindu temples being spread, fact-checkers take to busting these false narratives, sharing videos of students protecting temples in Bangladesh

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]]> Yesterday, on August 5, in a significant turn of events, Bangladesh saw a turn in their government with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigning and leaving the country on Monday in the afternoon and Army chief Waker uz Zaman stating that an interim government will take over the power. The ex-prime minister had left the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on a helicopter with her sister, and landed at Hindon Air Base in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad in a C-130 transport aircraft. On the morning for August 6, at 9 am, she has now left for her next destination.

It is to be noted that Hasina’s decision was prompted by the weeks-long protest against 30% reservations to select groups in government jobs and educational institutions. After this decision for reservation was made public, protestors took to the streets to question the quota of reservation being granted to the third generation of freedom fighters, and demanding a total merit-based recruitment. While the protests had begun peacefully in June against the quota system, the student-led movement later turned into a people’s movement. This escalated to a protest to oust Sheikh Hasina, who won for the fourth time in the January elections. The protests against the dictatorial government saw violence as brute force was used by the police against protestors, leading to the deaths of dozens of people. Over 100 people died over the weekend prior to the resignation of ex-PM Hasina. The weekend also saw the Bangladesh government ordering a complete internet shutdown as protestors asked the general public to join a “Long March to Dhaka”. A nationwide curfew had also been imposed indefinitely. However, around 1:15 pm on Monday, a government agency gave a verbal order to start broadband internet.

Soon after Hasina left the country, jubilant crowds waved flags and danced in front of cameras. Videos showing tens of thousands of people surrounding government offices and residences in the capital Dhaka started coming up on social media. People could be seen entering the official residence of ex-PM Hasina and stealing things from her house, which included fishes, utensils, clothes, etc. However, the celebratory protests also took a turn for the worst as videos of people vandalising an imposing statue of Hasina’s father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in Dhaka, attacking the head with an axe also emerged.

Chaos in the neighbouring Bangladesh had a ripple effect in India as well. As more and more social media images and videos of the protest started coming out, certain social media accounts, known for making inflammatory comments and spreading false claims, started spreading misinformation regarding the Bangladeshi Hindus being attacked by the Muslims in Bangladesh. Claims of the minority population of Hindus being physically attacked and facing sexual violence went viral, along with allegation of temples and Hindu structures being burnt by mobs. However, most of these claims were false and were being spread by fake-news peddlers to create disharmony in India and showcase that the Bangladeshi Hindus were being targeted by the Muslims. Twisting the events into Hindu-Muslim communal agenda has the potential of creating a false narrative, leading to a law-and-order situation between the Hindu and Muslim population in India.

While it is understandable that the unpredictable situation prevailing in Bangladesh as well as the history of violence against minorities in the country would lead to people being apprehensive regarding the safety of Hindus and Christians, the false sense of panic that is being created through propaganda is only contributing to the chaos. However, to counter the misinformation being aired by these certain right-wing social media accounts with the aim of creating panic, a different section also took up the task of correcting ad clarifying these narratives. Mohammed Zubair, a fact-checker with Alt News, has been continuously analysing these false posts and fact-checking these posts.

False narratives and myth busting:

It is essential to note that since yesterday evening, the hashtag of #AllEyesOnBangladeshiHindus had been trending on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter). Even political leaders fanned these misleading narratives and delivered inciteful and violent hate speeches. Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Nitesh Rane, who is a habitual hate offender and spreads his divisive ideology, took up this chance to encourage violence. Taking to X, Rane wrote “If Hindus are targeted and killed in Bangladesh, why should we allow even one Bangladeshi to breathe here. Hum bhi chun chun ke marenge.” (We will also kill each of them selectively)”

https://x.com/NiteshNRane/status/1820527693206892574?t=Pq8anhxMzlofvYKKgsyoCQ&s=08

A series of misleading posts were also put out by the social media account of “Mr. Sinha” through which he had posted unverified videos to directly inflame the situation through fake news, exaggerations, and claims of an imminent genocide on the back of the Hindus in Bangladesh.

Multiple such posts were then fact-checked by Zubair. In one such post, Zubair provided how an old video of a sexual assault case in Bengaluru city involving Bangladeshis was now being shared with a communal claim that Hindu girls are being raped in Bangladesh.

 

Zubair also fact-checked the claims made by other right-wing groups that had provided that a temple had been set of fire by a mob in Bangladesh. Correcting the same, Zubair stated that only a shop in front of the temple in Moulvibazar Kali Bari was set on fire and the temple had remained safe.

Another lie was making rounds on social media, wherein it had been stated that the house of a Bangladeshi Hindu cricketer Liton Das had been set on fire. However, Zubair had clairifed that the house of Mashrafe Mortaza was the one that was set on fire and the news about Das’s house was being wrongly shared to give a communal colour to the incidents.

Other ‘X’ users also fact-checked posts that were spreading misinformation.

Calls for maintaining harmony and protecting minority Hindus reverberate Bangladesh:

Videos showing Muslims in Bangladesh raising calls for protecting the minorities in the country also emerged on social media. In a video shared by Zubair, a Muslim man can be seen and heard making announcement to maintain communal harmony on a loudspeaker from inside the Mosque in Bangladesh. The man can be heard saying “Dear Citizens, we ‘Students Against Discrimination’ are requesting you, during this period of unrest in the country, we all must maintain communal harmony. We should protect Hindu minorities. Protect their lives and their wealth from miscreants/evil forces. It is your responsibility, our responsibility, and everyone’s responsibility. Let’s all be vigilant.”

 

Zubair also shared pictures of the Muslim community members standing vigil outside Hindu temples to ensure that no miscreant takes advantage of the situation and creates communal disharmony.

 

The hashtag #HindusAreSafeInBangladesh has also been trending on ‘X’.

 

Related:

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Violence Unleashed: Kanwariya Yatra 2024, police vehicle and shops vandalised

Will Bangladesh’s Politics Of Revenge End?

‘Counterproductive’: Attacking symbols of Bangladesh liberation, degrading its founding leaders

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]]> BJP Corporator arrested for circulating fake video showing rigged polls https://sabrangindia.in/bjp-corporator-arrested-for-circulating-fake-video-showing-rigged-polls/ Fri, 17 May 2024 09:01:21 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=35428 After BJP Candidate Madhavi Latha was booked for using ‘dummy’ EVMs, a BJP corporator has been arrested for sharing a video falsely claiming it to show rigged polls in Telangana’s Hyderabad.

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]]> The Cybercrime Unit of the Hyderabad Police arrested Sravan Vurapalli, a BJP corporator, along with three others on May 16th for sharing an old video clip from Bengal that allegedly depicted rigging at a polling booth in Hyderabad. The video, which was falsely claimed to be from Bahadurpura, was circulated on social media earlier this week, after the recent Lok Sabha polling in Hyderabad.

Sravan Vurapalli, who represents Malkajgiri as a BJP GHMC corporator, was taken into custody from his office on Thursday evening, according to police officials. The arrests came after a complaint was filed by officials from the Election Commission of India (ECI), who reported the spread of the misleading video.

The video shared was said to convey poll rigging at Bahadurpura in Hyderabad. It shows the inside of a polling station, where an officer can be seen wearing a surgical mask. The footage also captures a person in a striped dark blue round-collar T-shirt standing beside a voting compartment, directing people as they enter. Each time someone exits the compartment, a beep can be heard. Social media users had been claiming that AIMIM had rigged the polling in the city.

However, according to the election commission of Telangana’s chief electoral officer (CEO) Vikas Raj the video shared by the BJP corporator and others is not from Telangana at all and is fake. The Hyderabad police had also earlier debunked the video and designated it as fake. The video is reportedly from a Bangla language channel.

 

The CEO Vikas Raj had also stated on May 1st that there were several complaints circulating about fake and doctored videos that were going to be addressed.

Interestingly, on the day of polls in Hyderabad, on May 13th, BJP’s candidate Madhavi Latha for the Hyderabad seat had also claimed there was rigging. On the day of polling, she had also gone around reportedly asking burqa clad Muslim women to show their faces and identity cards at the polling booths, which led to uproar on social media and an FIR registered against her. The candidate also had a fresh case filed against her recently for using ‘dummy’ EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) to manipulate polling’s, as per a report in The Hindu. The Hyderabad Police also took two other BJP workers for reportedly manipulating polls. Latha was further booked with a case for even going to the police station and taking the EVMs that the police had seized from the Mangalghat Locality.

 

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LAPRI files 37 complaints to authorities as on 12 May for violations of MCC and RPA

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]]> Busted: Exploring the origins of Australia as ‘Astralaya’ and the potential Indian Yogi influence on Baalbek Temple in Lebanon https://sabrangindia.in/busted-exploring-the-origins-of-australia-as-astralaya-and-the-potential-indian-yogi-influence-on-baalbek-temple-in-lebanon/ Thu, 21 Mar 2024 04:20:18 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=33985 Spiritual figures make competing claims about Australian and Lebanese History, both Sadhguru's Isha and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's organisations in the spotlight

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]]> Do these claims pass the test of facts?

Claim: Indian yogis built the Baalbek Temple in Lebanon.

Busted! Sadhguru’s website claims, without citing any sources, that Indian yogis built the Baalbek temple in Lebanon. While trade and culture exchanges between India and countries across the globe have taken place for millennia, there seems to be no available record to point towards Indian builders of the Baalbek temple in Lebanon.

CJP is dedicated to finding and bringing to light instances of Hate Speech, so that the bigots propagating these venomous ideas can be unmasked and brought to justice. To learn more about our campaign against hate speech, please become a member. To support our initiatives, please donate now!

Figures like Sadhguru have also reportedly contributed to the spread of misinformation. Jagadish “Jaggi” Vasudev, better known as Sadhguru, is a self-styled spiritual leader and founder of the organisation Isha Foundation. In 2019, he was in the news for having called a Muslim student ‘Talibani’ when he was delivering a talk at the London School of Economics. While he later clarified that it was a joke, and that it was a term used in India to call someone being ‘overly-enthusiastic.’ Following this, he was also seen supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act brought forth by the BJP government in 2019 which has been termed by many as anti-constitutional and anti-Muslim. He has also often praised PM Modi, most recently being regarding the inauguration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh in January 2024. He also termed the Ram Temple’s inception as ‘a resurrection of a damaged national spirit’. News reports allege that he has over 300 spiritual centres located around the world. Interestingly, the headquarters of his foundation, which is a 50-acre property in Coimbatore has been accused of being built illegally according to a report by NewsLaundry.

His influence seems to be vast with over 12 million followers on Instagram presently, he has boasted of devotees such as Hollywood actors Will Smith and even Mathew McConaughey, according to a report by Vox News from 2022.

On Sadghuru’s website, an article on his website ‘Isha’ named Baalbek Temple – Lebanon’s Ancient Yogic Connection has claimed that the Baalbek monument in Lebanon and suggested that the temple was constructed by Indian yogis and labourers. The writer, who is described as a female ‘meditator’, describes her ‘realisation’ that the temple was built by Indian yogis during her visit.

Later, Sadhguru’s official Facebook page has also posted this claim, in 2017. The post reads, “In Lebanon, there is a temple in Baalbek which is over 4,000 years old. Children in Lebanon schools study that Indian labour, elephants, sculptors and yogis constructed this. It is a massive temple. Some of the foundation stones weigh three hundred tons. Sculptures of lotus flowers are hanging from the ceiling. Obviously, there are no lotuses in Lebanon; it was sculptured by Indians. Every Lebanese child knows this. Has any #Indian child heard about it?”

The author claims that the temple had lotus engravings, which he suggests are not found in the area, “Some curious facts about the Baalbek temple are that you will see stone lotuses carved on the temple’s ceilings. That is intriguing, because there are no lotuses in Lebanon. But when I later came to India, I saw that the lotus is the most common symbolism of spirituality here.”

The essay on the website then goes on to point towards the idea that Indian yogis may have built the temple.  Furthermore, she claims that the stones at the temple were very large (“eight hundred tonnes each”) and thus must have required elephants, which she suggests do not exist in West Asia, to transport such massive slabs of stone.

However, while the author does not seem to provide any details or dates of these events she suggests or “realises” and merely notes from her own observations during the visit and fails to cite any historian or scientist. Furthermore,  her observation that there were no elephants in West Asia seems to be misplaced, as it has been recorded by scientists that the region around Syria was noted to have elephants that went extinct around 8 century BCE.

Furthermore, according to the factual historical record outlined by UNESCO on its website, the Baalbek complex which is located at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range was a huge cultural institution during Roman times and served as a prominent sanctuary within the Roman world. UNESCO’s description of the site stated that it had Roman origins.


Temple of Jupiter (Baalbek) – Source: Britannica.com

 While, not much is known about the temple from before its Greek conquest in 323 BCE, it was reportedly a significant model of Imperial Roman architecture and has its own history as it was dedicated to the Roman Triad of Heliopolis which consisted of Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Furthermore, UNESCO’s documentation reveals that the Roman constructions were superimposed upon earlier ruins, which included remains of the Phoenician tradition. Sadhguru’s attempt to reshape history that is surrounding Baalbek contradicts established historical facts and risks distorting the significance of cultures and traditions from different parts of the world. The Temple was dedicated to three gods of Roman mythology – Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury, which were, as per UNESCO, a part of a Phoenesian cult. The Phoenicians were a Semitic group that were found in the region of Levant, near east of the Mediterranean Sea.

Hence, apart from this piece written by the author for the organisation’s website ‘Isha’  there is little mention of the Indian presence at the temple that was found while conducting this research. While cross cultural exchanges have taken place between India and the globe, from Greeks to the Chinese, it is difficult to ascertain and certify these by layperson observations by religious figures.

Claim: Australia’s original name was Astralaya.

Busted! Sri Sri Ravi Shankar  has been claiming that during the time of the Mahabharata, there was a Sanskrit origin for the name Australia, Astralaya – which means armoury. However, Australia’s name means southern land in Latin, due to its position vis a vis the rest of the world. There is no evidence that points towards Astralaya ever being the name according to official records.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation. He is from Papanasam, Tamil Nadu. In 2023-2024, his foundation, Art of Living, has signed several MOU’s with the government in relation to environmental concerns, farmers’ concerns, substance addiction. As per Financial Times, in 2024, Shankar was part of a team of leaders who led an anti-corruption campaign against the then prime minister Manmohan Singh of Congress. According to a 2016 article about him, The Quint reported that his AOL foundation is mired in several controversies, namely that the foundations buildings are built on encroached land in Karnataka. In 2010, he was also accused by an NRI of taking his 15 acres of land. Shankar is endorses by leaders globally, so much so that his foundation has even been praised by the US president Joe Biden. Shankar’s X page, where he regularly posts about his global engagements, has about 4.1 million followers at present.

 He has reportedly done so by linking it to the term “Astralaya” (Astra-Alaya) which supposedly translates to armoury. In an undated video posted on YouTube uploaded in 2021 by a page called NRI Affairs, the spiritual leader responds to a person’s question and tries to concoct the idea that Australia had ties to India Hindu heritage, saying, “Do you know the country, Australia? Where did its name come from? Australia (armoury) in Mahabharata became Australia.”

History provides a different narrative. The national library of Australia which holds historical records pertaining to the land and nation, informs us that the name “Australia” was actually coined by English explorer Matthew Flinders to describe the continent on a map. Prior to Flinders, the landmass was referred to as ‘Terra Australis Incognita,’ a term which means unknown Southern land in Latin. Here, the word Australis which means Southern.

Prior to the name Australia, the land was named ‘New Holland’ by the incoming Dutch immigrants to the land in the 17th century. However, both these names are admittedly named by white Anglo-Saxon colonialism that dominated and plundered the habitats of indigenous people in Australia. The advent of European colonialism did not just result in cultural changes and domination of the whites but also led to a decline in the population of the indigenous inhabitants of the land. When the Europeans arrived Australia was declared as ‘terra nuilis’, a land that belonged to no one or wasteland. This shows how little value the Europeans gave to the indigenous as they sought to colonise and inhabit the land.

However, before the Europeans arrived, the territory now called Australia was known by several different names among its Indigenous peoples, reflecting the multitude of languages and cultures across different regions, according to the National Library of Australia. Each of these names had spiritual significance to the land. The act of Indian spiritual leaders to make such claims seems to be another, deliberate or otherwise, means of erasure of aboriginal history, culture, presence.

While there is an undoubtedly western, Anglo-Saxon domination behind this interpretation, and indigenous aboriginal insights need to be factored in, Indian market gurus take on the term is certainly fallacious.


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]]> India tops list of countries at risk due to misinformation: what does this mean for India’s democracy? https://sabrangindia.in/india-tops-list-of-countries-at-risk-due-to-misinformation-what-does-this-mean-for-indias-democracy/ Thu, 01 Feb 2024 06:38:38 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=32777 As India grows as a developing power, misinformation and its tendency to lead to violence is an ongoing concern

The post India tops list of countries at risk due to misinformation: what does this mean for India’s democracy? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

]]> On September 12, 2022 large scale unrest broke out in England’s Leicester between the residing Hindu and Muslim communities. It was fuelled by a racket of fake news that was created, according to the Scroll, “continents away.” The incident witnessed heavy violence with people armed with sticks and bats, ready for confrontation, after 300 young masked Hindu men marched two miles in the city to a Muslim majority area, according to The Guardian. Experts believe the fake news that spurred the violence was sought to have originated in India after a rumour was spread that one girl was kidnapped by Hindu men. The fake news was busted by the police shortly, but the damage was already done. How pervasive is fake news that it is able to capture the sentiments of Indians across the globe?

According to a recently released report by the World Economic Forum titled Global Risks Report 2024 reveals that India has topped the list for when it comes to the countries that are having wide networks of misinformation and disinformation. According to experts, out of all potential risks India is the country which is most at risk for its citizens to encounter fake news and misinformation. This ranking comes before concerns about infectious diseases, illicit economic activities, wealth and income inequality, and labour shortages. Other nations at high risk for the impacts of misinformation and disinformation include El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Romania, Ireland, Czechia, the United States, Sierra Leone, France, and Finland. In these countries, the threat is considered to be among the 4th-6th most hazardous risks out of a total of 34 anticipated over the next two years, contrary to India where it is the number one risk. India seems to have carved a unique niche for itself as a landscape where misinformation persists. The Global Risk report links the spread of fake news to societal violence.

Al Jazeera also reported that on a global scale the misinformation circulating on social media since October 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel revealed that that a considerable portion of it originates from or is propagated by accounts aligned with right-wing inclinations and are based in India.

What are the factors that are involved?

In India, according to Statista, about 687 million internet users are plugged into their mobiles, getting the lowdown. Furthermore, according to a 2023 survey by Reuters and the University of Oxford, a solid 72 percent of people in India are scrolling through for their news online on their phones, with social media playing a significant role in providing the news.

Thereby, in comparison, only 40 percent of respondents resort to print media during the same period. India, being the second-largest internet market globally. According to Statista, a big factor behind this is when back in 2007, Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio services in 2007 played a pivotal role, introducing enticing schemes and subsidies that transcended income levels and socio-economic classes. The repercussions were fast and quick as Jio services took control over 60 percent of mobile data traffic within a decade of their launch.

How is India’s press fairing at this turn? Continuing a downward trajectory observed since 2017, India witnessed a further decline in its press freedom ranking, landing at 161 out of 180 countries in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index unveiled by Reporters without Borders. Scoring 36.6, India has found itself as one of the countries where the liberty of the press faced significant threats. The assessment of the Press Freedom Index for 2023 takes into account various factors and is based on a survey of the country’s political, economic, and sociocultural contexts, as well as the legal framework and safety levels within the country.

The government in 2023 also publicised attempts to tackle fake news. In January 2023, the Editor’s Guild of India had called upon the government to stop the amendments to the IT Rules - 2021 that were being made by the Ministry of Electronics and Technology.

 

They were asserting that this new step would include changes to the country's information-technology regulations and thus would amount to censorship. The proposal would give the government power to prevent social media platforms from sharing any information that could be flagged by authorities as false. The move was seen by journalists as a means to gather power and control over the internet and journalism. The changes proposed by the government included that if there were any information categorised by the government as “fake” by the government’s Press Information Bureau then the government would deliberate actions to prevent that information being shared or disseminated in any way on the internet.

India marked as country most prone to ‘social polarisation’

Health, religion, and politics are the most common topics that fake news revolves around, according to a survey by the Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research. Similarly, the Global Risk Report has found strong links between misinformation and social polarisation. It has ranked polarisation among the top three risks across both the present and the next two years across the globe.

Just like the incident of riots in England cited above where rumours from social media abounded and led to heightened communal sentiments, rumours have been historically linked to propagating riots. With the coming of social media and the surge in fake news, the ground becomes even more worrisome for fakes news to lead to violence. Thus, the report by WEF further highlights that polarisation is made worse with technological threats as they are often not kept in mind by the government. Furthermore, the report identifies India as the country most susceptible to experiencing heightened social polarisation in the upcoming year due to the surge in misinformation and the proliferation of false narratives.

A recent report from BOOM Live's survey of fact checks revealed an alarming conclusion where it was noted that Muslims in India are the primary targets of misinformation and disinformation campaigns which are fuelled by communal sentiments. The examination was based on data accumulated over the past three years and highlights a consistent pattern of fake news disproportionately affecting the Muslim community. According to BOOM Live's findings spanning from 2021 to 2023, the Muslim community remained the main focus and arguing point in numerous disinformation campaigns.

The Global Risks Report 2024 by the WEF had highlighted how vulnerable the global scene and landscape has become due to the effects of the pandemic. It states that pandemic has created “fertile ground” for the rampant spread of misinformation and disinformation.

During the pandemic, a report by Vice detailed that there was an alarming surge in misinformation. Some of this, according to the report, would often come from government sources. The report details that the spread of fake news has generally been associated with issues ranging from Islamophobia and conspiracy theories to unverified herbal remedies and the congregation of migrant workers. Presently, unverified assertions, like the questionable ‘COVID-19 cure’ promoted by herbal company Patanjali and flagged by official bodies as misleading, continue to circulate.

BJP and its multiple links to fake news campaigns

According to a report by The Print from 2020, a recent study was conducted by a software analyst who looked at the prevalence of propaganda and fake news on Twitter which revealed an alarming pattern. He noted that for every account that promoted the Congress and shared misleading information, there were reportedly about 120 accounts who did the similar task but favouring the BJP. The study further showed that there were 17,779 such accounts that were supporting the BJP compared to 147 linked to the Congress.

Similarly, a field report by Washington Post uncovered an operation that there's a hidden campaign behind the trolls present online. This is behind the scenes and is separate from the official social media trends. Insights from BJP staff, campaign consultants, and party supporters, shared in the ground-breaking report by Washington Post in September 2023, has exposed the party's covert partnerships with anonymous content creators who oversee what they term as "third-party" or "troll" pages. These content creators excel in producing incendiary posts which are designed to polarise and communalise sentiments on platforms like WhatsApp. This is done to cater to the party's base. Furthermore, the Washington Post report delves deeper into Meta, the parent company overseeing WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. It revealed that Meta's repeatedly failed to sufficiently act against the dissemination of hate content, including fake news. There are also claims of leniency towards BJP leaders who breached its terms. SabrangIndia's coverage earlier last year had looked at Meta's annual human rights report and noted that activists are unhappy and critical and have pointed out that the platform is uninterested in curating a strategy to quell rampant hate.

 

Related:

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India’s Struggle for Social Harmony: Challenges Amidst Surge in Hate Speech

Imposters posing as Muslims: A sinister ploy to further stigmatise

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]]> Muslims in India bear the brunt of dis/misinformation: report https://sabrangindia.in/muslims-in-india-bear-the-brunt-of-dis-misinformation-report/ Fri, 19 Jan 2024 10:25:17 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=32520 An in-depth analysis by Boom Live, an independent fact-checker, reveals alarming trends of targeted dis/misinformation aimed against the religious minority

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]]> Muslims in India are the largest targets of communally charged dis/misinformation campaigns, according to a survey of fact checks by BOOM Live. In an examination of fact-checks that was reportedly compiled from data collected over the last three years, BOOM Live’s has brought to light an alarming pattern which shows that the Muslim community in India is the primary target of fake news and dis/misinformation. According to the piece by BOOM Live, from 2021 to 2023, the Muslim community consistently found itself in the middle of multiple dis/misinformation campaigns.

For instance, in the time between January 2 and December 31, 2023, BOOM Live published around 190 fact-checks in English, Hindi, and Bangla. They analysed this data and it revealed that about 15.4% of these fact-checks which amounted to a total of 183 instances were claims that specifically targeted the Muslim community. 

BOOM Live’s analysis of 211 fact-checks targeting religious groups reveals that Muslims bore the brunt of these fact-checks, with nearly 87% of them being directed at the religious minority, while Hindus faced 11% and Christians faced about 0.9%. The nature of the dis/misinformation was taken out differently for Hindus and Muslims for, even though both groups were subjected to misleading and false content, the proportion of these claims showcased a stark contrast. For instance, 67.4% of misleading claims targeted Muslims, while only 5.2% were directed at Hindus, with Christians facing 0.48% of such content.

BOOM’s analysis shows that a significant 72.2% of those posts aimed at Muslims carried a communal undertone, and seemingly sought to ignite animosity between religious groups. In contrast, the fact-checks targeting Hindus reflected a mere 5.26% with similar communal implications. One common trope amongst these campaigns was that of a concentrated effort to raise alarm about a population conspiracy. Citizens for Justice and Peace has previously busted this claim as part of this Hate Buster segment, and various outlets too have revealed that this solely exists as a means of polarising sentiments and creating hate against minorities. 

A staggering percentage, about 84.2%, of these claims were seen to be disseminating these alarming claims of ‘population explosion.’ The internet is replete with these claims that cry about an alleged demographic conspiracy slated by Muslims to ‘take over’ the Hindu population and reduce it to a minority. This claim has not been backed by any facts and, in fact, has been effectively debunked by research institutes as well. For instance, the Pew Research Centre has projected a growth in India’s Muslim community to 311 million by 2050 but this would be in relation to the Hindu population, which also grow by millions. Thus, even if this progression of population continues according to current growth rates, Muslims are expected to remain a minority in a country of 1.7 billion people. 

Yet, these fact-checks have not deterred the proliferation of disinformation on social media platforms, such as Facebook and WhatsApp. False narratives predicting India’s immediate transition to a Muslim-majority country have fast gained traction which in turn are fuelled by conspiracy theories that claim Muslims are plotting to secure numerical supremacy. These narratives thereby have been long propagated by Hindutva adherents serve to not only distort demographic projections but also perpetuate social fissures.

Politics 

Furthermore, BOOM Live’s fact-checks have further unearthed that while the Muslim community emerged as a consistent central point in these campaigns, political figures and political currents do not remain aside. It discovered that political figures, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi also are subjected to these campaigned, however, it seems in a different manner. For instance, BOOM outlines that of the 1,190 fact-checks conducted, only 63 were directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi but unlike the negative portrayal endured by the Muslim community, Modi was subjected to a number of false claims that portrayed him in a positive light. 

Interestingly, international events were not spared either as one of the most fact-checked topics of the year was the Israel-Palestine conflict. BOOM reported that it had over 100 fact-checks dedicated to unpacking fake news related to the issue. Furthermore, in terms of domestic politics, there was a considerable number of fact-checks devoted to smear campaigns against political parties which saw that the BJP was the primary target, with 44% of smear campaigns directed at them, followed by the Indian National Congress at 30% and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at 12%.

Media

BOOM Live further fact-checked 77 instances of false or misreported news by mainstream media, news websites, and wire agencies throughout 2023. The results were surprised as it was revealed that mainstream media outlets such as News18, Times Now, and Zee News have been identified as key contributors to media-related dis/misinformation.

Moreover, the analysis revealed that Asian News International (ANI) led the pack among these agencies. BOOM Live’s reports that there were about eight instances of false news reported by them. Interestingly, the analysis also shows the lack of fact-checking exercises by some of these media houses as they have also been reported to be falling for fake news propagated by right-wing accounts on platforms like Twitter. Accounts such as Megh Updates, BALA, Rishi Bagree, The Right Wing Guy, Kreately, Dr. Nimo Yadav, and The Tatva played a role in disseminating dis/misinformation, with media outlets being duped by at least nine tweets from Megh Updates alone, according to the analysis by BOOM. 

Similarly, India’s largest minority, Muslims have also been recorded to be the target of hate speeches in 2023. According to Al-Jazeera, throughout the initial half of 2023, Muslims faced a surge in hate speech gatherings. The article details there were about 255 incidents of hate speech at gatherings which documented. These instances reportedly saw the Muslim community as being the target of hate speech as well as dis/misinformation.

Related

Distorting facts about Muslim population growth at the Digital Hindu Conclave

False claims about ‘Muslim population explosion’ busted

Indian Population Growth Less Dependent On Religion, More On Development

India 131st out of 180 countries on child survival rankings: WHO-UNICEF-Lancet report

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]]> Bihar: Hindutva leaders cry ISIS style murder, police reveal girlfriend real killer https://sabrangindia.in/bihar-hindutva-leaders-cry-isis-style-murder-police-reveal-girlfriend-real-killer/ Tue, 19 Dec 2023 10:18:53 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=31917 Manoj Kumar Shah, a caretaker at Gopalgunj’s Shiv Temple in Danapur found dead after missing for five days. While BJP leaders initially called it an ISIS style murder, these allegations were busted when the investigation by the police revealed that the victim’s ex-girlfriend killed him because he threatened her with posting compromising images online.

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]]> In a chilling turn of events in Gopalganj, Bihar the town of Danapur was turned upside down after the dead body of the missing temple caretaker was found brutally murdered and ravaged. Townspeople staged protests against the administration demanding a fair investigation and stone pelting was also reported.

Gopalganj Superintendent of Police Swarn Prabhat revealed that the victim, Manoj Kumar Sah, previously thought to be the temple priest, was, in fact, the caretaker of the temple in Manjha village’s Danapur area. His life ended in a mutilated condition, with his body discovered on the outskirts of a village after being missing for a week.

The lifeless body of the temple staff was found on the outskirts of the village a week after his disappearance.  The victim had last been seen leaving the temple premises in Manjha village within the Danapur area on a Monday. The discovery of his body occurred on the subsequent Saturday after the week-long search, according to PTI.

BJP leader Shezad was quick to make it a political issue, calling the murder “ISIS style.”

However, contrary to initial speculations about the alleged involvement of radical groups, investigators discovered it to be a crime due to personal enmity and relations.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to investigate the crime and it led to the arrest of three individuals – Neha Kumari, Sunita Devi, and Amit Kumar. According to the police statements, Neha Kumari confessed to the crime due to alleged threats from Manoj Shah. The Superintendent Swarn Prabhat disclosed that the police successfully traced the victim’s final call which led them to Neha’s aunt, Sunita Devi. After this, the law enforcement officials visited their home and questioned the family. During the round of questioning, the both of them reportedly broke down and confessed.

According to reports, Manoj Shah departed from the Shiv temple at 12:45 am on December 11 and arrived at Neha’s house, where her family subdued and ultimately killed him. In a gruesome turn of events, they mutilated his lifeless body and disposed of it in a pit near the Sudha dairy outlet.

ANI has quoted the SDPO Sadar Pranjal as saying that, “A young man, named Manoj Kumar Shah, working as a caretaker at the Shiv Temple in Danapur, was missing. The CCTV footage showed that he locked the temple himself and went somewhere… During the investigation, we found his body in the Danapur area… The body was sent for post-mortem. The people blocked roads in protest… An FIR has been registered against some mischievous youth… Various internal issues including land issues within the family have come up… Some people have been detained… There was some stone pelting. Action is being taken…”

Reports suggest that the suspects Neha Kumari, Sunita Devi, and Amit Kumar are in custody.

 

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Madhya Pradesh: loudspeakers in religious places, plans to ban open sale of meat

 

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]]> Bihar: How festival holidays become target of fake news https://sabrangindia.in/bihar-how-festival-holidays-become-target-of-fake-news/ Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:46:37 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=31481 Two days ago, Bihar's Education Department released the list of school holiday, which was then blown out of proportion by the media, sparking a misinformation wave

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]]> This time, it all started with a list of public holidays, in Bihar. Two days ago when the Bihar Education Department released the list of school holidays, it was calculatedly amplified into a media-driven misinformation/fake-news campaign. Beginning with newspapers, followed by electronic media outlets, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fully capitalized on this malicious campaign. All these links in the fake news chain were essentially alleging that “Hindu Holidays have been cancelled and Muslim holidays have been introduced” in Bihar. This misinformation and fake-news was made to go viral on social media with trolls chipping in. Never forget that Bihar remains a political thorn-in-the-flesh for the ruling regime, especially after chief minister Nitish Kumar switched sides—again—and is now with the secular Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

First, several Hindi newspapers published articles (well-coordinated!) saying that the Bihar Education Department has ‘abolished’ holidays for ‘Hindu’ festivals and increased holidays for ‘Muslim’ celebrations. Soon, we witnessed a well-coordinated propaganda both in the print media and on social media platforms. Predictably, several senior BJP leaders and “influencers” amplified the Fake-News. Commercial electronic (TV) News Channels promptly started “debates” on this issue and conveniently invited representatives of the dominant, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to amplify this out of context and spread more lies and fake news. The social media storm around this has been created to create the impression that “Hindu masses” are also angry as they see this propaganda as “real.”

So much so that the Bihar education department has now been compelled to issue a “clarification” regarding school holidays for the academic session 2024. The announcement clarified that there were/are no changes in the number of holidays next year and that all schools have always remained open and celebrated the birth anniversaries of great men. The education department made the clarifications in response to the rumours circulating around the recently released school holiday calendar 2024.  This is what the Bihar government has had to do.

Bihar school holiday 2024 calendar out, BSEB clarifies different lists for Urdu and general schools

What is the actual context? 

 Every year the many state governments release a list of holidays for schools. There are different calendars issued for different set of schools. They issue a different list of holidays for Madarsa and Maqtabs. By picking up and highlighting only the Holiday list of the Madrasas and Maqtabs and making out as if these holidays applied to all educational institutions, this barrage of fake information was spreading falsehood, stigma and prejudice. [For example the Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education gives Friday as a weekly holiday even under the Adityanath’s leadership. This may be read here. 

The Nitish Kumar-RJD combine has increased the summer vacation holidays from 20 to 30 days, therefore many festivals that fall during that period are not mentioned separately as holidays. The BJP has cynically used this as an opportunity to deliberately spread a fear/hate campaign. 

Propaganda examples

ना रामजी का, ना कृष्ण जी, ना शिव जी, ना महान सम्राट अशोक का है बिहार!
–ईद : 3 दिन
–बकरीद: 3 दिन
–मुहर्रम : 2 दिन
– शुक्रवार (जुमा): मुस्लिम बहुल क्षेत्र में अघोषित छुट्टी
–रामनवमी : 0 दिन
–रक्षाबंधन: 0 दिन
–महाशिवरात्रि: 0 दिन
–श्रीकृष्ण जन्माष्टमी : 0 दिन
– सम्राट अशोक अष्टमी: 0 दिन

ये कोई दूसरे देश का कैलेंडर नहीं, लालू–नीतीश के तुष्टिकरण का खामियाजा पूरा बिहार भुगत रहा है।

#ThagbandhanAppeasement
#SanatanVirodhi  

Muslim-only IT park, religious quota, Shadi Shagun scheme, interest free loans to Waqf, Haj pilgrimage subsidy, salaries to Maulvis, free UPSE coaching – Secularism in this country has transmogrified into Appeasement. This is not welfare; this is warfare.

Bihar govt has slashed the school holidays on the occasions of Janmashtami, Rakshabandhan, Shivratri. However, ‘3 holidays have been given during Eid’. Urdu schools to get weekly holiday on Friday instead of Sunday

The Bihar government has enforced discriminatory policies by removing holidays for many Hindu festivals in schools & granting three-day holidays for one-day Muslim festivals. This is a clear example of appeasement politics, which is a great injustice to the Hindu community.

 

VIDEO | “Does Bihar CM Nitish Kumar want to form Islamic Republic of Bihar?” says Union minister and BJP leader @girirajsinghbjp on reports of #Bihar government’s decision to reduce the number of holidays for the state’s schools during Hindu festivals and increasing it for Muslim festivals.

 

Background: Indian national holidays

Being a culturally diverse country, there are many festivals celebrated in various regions across the country. There are only three national holidays declared by the Government of India: Republic Day (26 January), Independence Day (15 August), and Gandhi Jayanti (October 2). Apart from this, certain holidays which are celebrated nationally are declared centrally by the Union Government. Additionally, various state governments and union territories designate additional holidays on local festivals or days of importance as holidays as per section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. National holidays are mandatory holidays declared by Government of India which are applicable for all states and union territories of India.

Central holidays: In addition to the three fixed national holidays, the Union Government of India declares additional days as holidays which are largely followed by central government offices and affiliates. In addition to designated fixed holidays, few other days are designated optional from which a select number of days can be chosen according to individual convenience. (Central holidays ‘Optional’) State holidays: In addition to the above, various state governments and union territories designate additional holidays on local festivals or days of importance as public holidays as per section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. Besides, they declare their own State days as holidays, birth anniversary days, festivals and others as holidays as well.

Editor’s take: This is one more example of “Hit and Run Sabotage” Propaganda. There has been a history of such fake propaganda campaigns by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) BJP especially during the election time. Many media houses also add to the confusion and promote Fake News. It takes about a week to 10 days for people to understand the facts, the news channels never apologise on their own for peddling essentially false information. Ultimately the damage is done, especially during an elections campaign. 


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]]> Attempts to give communal turn to blasts in Kerala unsuccessful, 3 cases filed by Kerala Police, CM Vijayan urges restraint & unity https://sabrangindia.in/attempts-to-give-communal-turn-to-blasts-in-kerala-unsuccessful-3-cases-filed-by-kerala-police-cm-vijayan-urges-restraint-unity/ Mon, 30 Oct 2023 13:16:45 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=30725 Even after Dominic Martin surrendered to Kerala Police taking responsibility for the blasts, political leaders from BJP backed by right wing trolls spread misinformation, target Kerala government for allowing pro-Palestine protests in the state

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]]> On October 29, multiple blasts took place at a convention centre housing a religious gathering of Jehovah’s Witnesses at Kalamassery in Kochi, Kerala. As per several media reports, the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) blasts has led to the death of three people and has left more than a 100 people injured. Two women, who were a part of the convention, had lost their lives on the spot while a minor had succumbed to her burns and injuries later. As per a report of the Hindu, the minority Christian sect had gathered for the final day of a three-day-long prayer meeting. More than 2,000 followers were attending the said event.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses is a religious movement which believes that the traditional Christian churches have deviated from the actual teachings of the Bible and that the destruction of the world is imminent.

A few hours after the incident, a man claiming to be a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses had posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the attacks. The aforementioned man, namely Dominic Martin, had also surrendered before the police in Thrissur district of the State pursuant to uploading his video on Facebook.

In his statement, translated from Malayalam by SouthFirst, Martin stated that he was a registered member of the religious group and was angry with its “anti-national” teachings. “During the past six years, I’ve made an effort to seriously study what they’re teaching. I quickly realised that they were presenting a faulty philosophy. I realised their doctrines are anti-national,” Martin said in his statement. Martin had further stated that he found the paths of the Jehovah’s Witnesses to be incorrect and found this to be a solution to crushing their “erroneous philosophy”. He further said that he found the existence of this particular organisation to be entirely unnecessary for this land, as per SouthFirst.

CM chairs all party meeting

On Monday, October 30, chief minister (CM), Pinarayi Vijayan, who has been vocal about the communalisation of the crime, chaired an all-party meeting to speak on the attack, wherein all members unanimously resolved to resist efforts to create religious intolerance and mistrust, as per the report of PTI. As per a report of Livemint, CM Vijayan also visited the blast site on Monday to meet the relatives of the victims and assess the situation. He had again urged people to steer clear of controversies in connection with blasts and face the issue with restraint and unity.

Confession

The 48-year-old posted his confession in a Facebook video, which has since been deleted, and handed himself in at a nearby police station. After detaining Martin, the Kerala police asserted that they are yet to conduct the investigation and are trying to verify the confession given by him. As per a report of BBC, Kerala police’s public relations officer Pramod Kumar had said “He is in our custody but we have not recorded his arrest so far. We are still trying to ascertain the veracity of his statement; it will take some time.” As per media reports, Martin has been booked under sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A 20-member team has been made to investigate the case.

Political leaders fuel communal fires

As soon as the reports of blasts, resultant death and injuries started surfacing on social media, two categories of people were revealed, one of whom were praying for the safety of the people and demanding a fair injury and the other one which, even before any evidence had emerged, falsely proclaimed the blasts to be a communal attack. Since protests in solidarity with Palestine, which is facing a genocide and attack on human rights of an unprecedented stature, it easier for the right wing to point their finder at the protestors too.

A few hours after the blasts, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had reacted sharply, and criticised senior BJP leader and Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar for the social media posts put up by him in regards to the Kalamassery blasts. In his posts, Chandrashekhar had taken to ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) and had criticised Vijayan for allowing a protest in Kerala where allegedly the head of the militant organisation ‘Hamas’ had spoken. As per Chandrashekhar, the CM had been “Sitting in Delhi and protesting against Israel, when in Kerala open calls by Terrorist Hamas for Jihad are causing attacks and bomb blasts on innocent Christians.” He had also accused Vijayan of indulging in the “dirty politics of appeasement.”

The post by Chandrashekhar can be viewed here:

As per a report of Indian Express, Union Minister and senior BJP leader V Muraleedharan had also called for a probe into “terror activities against Christian gatherings”, while Kerala BJP president K Surendran had declared that the incident needed to be viewed in the backdrop of the “pro-Palestine and pro-Hamas stance taken by the mainstream parties in the state”.

Notably, pursuant to this, many right-wing social media users started building on this conspiracy and sharing posts correlating the blasts to an online speech by a former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal at a pro-Palestine rally in Kerala, which had taken place a day prior, on October 28. As per a report of the News Minute, former Hamas chief Khaled Mashel had virtually addressed a Palestine solidarity rally held in Malappuram by Solidarity Youth Movement, the youth organisation of Jamaat-e-Islami, where he said that support must be extended to Palestinians and that Israeli forces are taking revenge on Palestinians. On ‘X’, these accounts had peddled the “aforementioned conspiracy” and shared visuals of the explosions taking place at the convention centre. In these posts, with no corroboration at all from any investigation agencies, the extremist users “claimed” that “radical Islamists” had bombed this gathering.

An example of such a post is as follows:

Responding to this, during a press conference, CM Vijayan had slammed the statements being made by the ruling party leaders. As per a report of the NDTV, Vijayan had, without taking the name of Rajeev Chandrasekhar, sought to ask on what (and whose) information the union minister made such remarks against him and how a person holding a responsible position could come out with such statements while the investigation was going on? Further, Vijayan had termed Chandrashekhar’s criticism of the chief minister himself and the Kerala government to be a part of his completely communal outlook.

“A person who holds the post of minister should have shown at least some respect to the investigating agencies. Though the Kerala police is probing the incident now, we all saw reports that central agencies have also reached the site,” the Chief Minister said, as per NDTV report.

He further said they have taken a stand targeting a particular group, and it was part of their communal stand, but Kerala has never followed any such “agenda.” In addition to this, in his address at the press conference, Vijayan also stated that other ministers from the same party (BJP) who were in support of the union minister had also come out with similar statements. Lastly, he urged people to not fall for such communal campaigns as well as not view the statements being made with much seriousness. 

Misinformation and fake news take over social media

The Kerala Police, on Sunday (October 29) itself, had issued a warning against propagating fake news through social media platforms regarding the incident of a serial blast that took place at a prayer meeting in Kalamassery. As per a report of ANI news, Kerala Director General of Police (DGP) Shaik Darvesh Sahib had said in a statement that “I request that no provocative words or hate be posted on social media. If anybody does that, stringent action will be taken against them.” He had also stated that the police had intensified round-the-clock surveillance on social media to detect accounts spreading such fake messages. Notably, when the DGP was asked whether this was a terrorist attack, the DGP had said that at this point of the investigation, no confirmation can be given about this.

And yet, even after the warnings and clarification issued by the Kerala Police, social media users had indulged in spreading misinformation, making communally inflammatory remarks and peddling fake news and fake theories. Mohammed Zubair, fact checker and co-founder of AltNews, has been actively highlighting the fake social media posts that are being shared on ‘X’. In many of these posts, he has also tagged the Kerala Police, urging them to take action against the misinformation being spread on social media by hate-mongers.

The posts by Zubair are as follows:


In a highly distasteful effort of New18Kerala to stir up communal division, a photo of a visibly Muslims man (wearing the head cap) was used as a thumbnail on their YouTube platform on the video covering the Kerala bomb blasts.

The thumbnail can be viewed here:

Another ‘X’ account, run by Lavanya Ballal Jain of the Indian National Congress (ironically the Congress, the opposition in Kerala has fuelled even the “love jihad” bogey in the past!) , had called out a right wing “activist” for spreading misinformation through their post by targeting the blasts with the pro-Palestine protest.

The post can be viewed here:

According to a report of the Hindu, the Special Branch’s social media monitoring mechanism, the police social media cell, police Cyberdome and the State Police Media Centre of Kerala are monitoring the cyber space for any hateful comments being posted. Till now, at least three cases have been filed by the Kerala Police across Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta districts on charges of posting communally inflammatory social media posts. The police have put in place multiple mechanisms to trawl the cyber space for posts trying to create communal hatred shortly after the blasts. The problematic posts are being forwarded to the police stations concerned for registering cases and taking further action. The Hindu report has provided that as per their sources, the number of such cases being filed by the Kerala Police is likely to increase.

Related:

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Israeli airstrike on Gaza hospital kills at least 500, Israel blame game continues

India: Criminalisation of protests, police action against supporters of Palestine

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]]> A swarm of fake news hits social media from India, hatred for all that is Muslim given a fillip: Hamas-Israel conflict https://sabrangindia.in/a-swarm-of-fake-news-hits-social-media-from-india-hatred-for-all-that-is-muslim-given-a-fillip-hamas-israel-conflict/ Mon, 16 Oct 2023 08:47:15 +0000 https://sabrangindia.in/?p=30340 In the wake of escalating conflict in Palestinian and Israeli territories, driven by the attack on Israel by Hamas on 7th of October, social media is awash with misinformation campaigns. One such significant portion of this campaign seems to be helmed by India. Various journalists have reported how Indian users supporting Israel can be found under any post about Israel and Palestine.

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]]> The conflict in the Middle East seems to be flaring up with a growing number of countries joining in. However, in India the conflict has had a polarising effect.

Prime Minister Modi professed support for Israel and condemned Hamas’ attacks. However, on October 12, the Ministry of External Affairs in India released a statement reaffirming the Indian government’s support for a ‘sovereign and independent’ Palestinian state. “Our policy has been long standing and consistent. India always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine, living within secure and recognised borders, side by side at peace with Israel. I think that position remains the same.”

However, despite these, social media has taken an intensely polarising turn; a sinister campaign seems to be running on social media wherein right-wing troll accounts are flooding tags titled ‘Indian Muslims’ and related tags with offensive posts about Muslims. Hindutva leaders like Yati Narsinghanand have been reported to be saying “Today we want to talk of religious leaders and leaders of Israel, that they give us permission and resources to settle in Israel with our religious practices and values intact. Because we are fighting with the same disease they are fighting with. I want to inform the Israeli Prime Minister that we are Hindu, we don’t kill anyone based on religion, but Mohammed and his followers are oding with us what they are doing with the Israeli.”

It is evident that the right–wing in India seeks to draw support for the cause of Israel as an extension of their anti-Muslim nature. They seem to form a bond of alleged victimhood to Islam with the Israeli state. Gauging the support rising for Israel from India, one can observe the majority be Hindutva supporters, with much of the content edging on being about Muslims in India as well. For instance, one user wrote the following, targeting Fact-checker and co-founder of Alt-News, Mohammed Zubair, calling Zubair a “terrorist sympathiser.” Zubair remains a perennial target for ruling party driven hate trolls on social media.

“Beware of Islamic Terror Sympathiser @zoo_bear 2019 Sri Lanka suicide blasts, Zubair defended Terrorists saying they were not Muslims. Later he had to apologize for his lie. In 2023, Zubair defends Hamas saying news of children beheaded is Fake. Biden says he has “confirmed” pics”

Another X account with about 15,300 followers, called SagasofBharat, wrote the following tweet.

This was another seemingly anonymous account that seems to be replete with anti-Muslim and casteist imagery and posts. Similarly, another Twitter user, Pallavi wrote the following tweet. Pallavi also claims to be a part of BJP’s IT Cell in its Mumbai wing:

“So Netanyahu’s son has joined Israel military forces to defend Israel Former PM Naftali Bennett has joined Israel’s soldiers on the frontlines to defend Israel Meanwhile, remember an Air India pilot connected to a very powerful political family took LEAVE so that he won’t be called for military service during 1971 war ? One politician was busy partying hard after one of the worst terror attacks on Indian soil took place during 26/11? Pehchan kaun??”

These tweets and their users really makes one ask the question if this is an organised attempt? Just recently, Washington Post released a hair-raising story investigative piece which reportedly revealed hidden “parallel campaign” which operated in tandem with the official social media promotions of the BJP. The report shed light on this seemingly covert operation through extensive and exclusive interviews with BJP personnel, campaign strategists, and loyalists. It was revealed that the party maintains clandestine partnerships with content creators who are incharge for managing what they term “third-party” or “troll” pages. These content creators specialise in generating incendiary content on platforms such as WhatsApp, X, Facebook etc. A Sabrang India also detailed that BJP IT-Cell volunteers have previously claimed that big celebrities such as Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan have also been subjected to vicious hate campaigns by such troll accounts who maintain a certain level of anonymity despite amassing a huge population. So organised rampages to polarise opinions and thereby influence social media users towards a particular narrative has happened in the past with similar means and goals, who is not to say that it is the same today?

However, the Israeli ambassador has also expressed appreciation for the support from India for Israel. In one of his tweets on X, he wrote the following, expressing appreciation at the support as ‘Hindus joined Jews’ a protest in Canada. This statement by the Israeli ambassador seems to confirm, probably inadvertently, the idea that Hindus and Jews are united against an enemy. An enemy which Muslims do not stand against.

Fake news network

Similarly, several claims seem to be running amok on social media in India. The right wing has been extensively campaigning – for instance, this claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent his son to fight in the army has been making the rounds on social media.

Shefail Vadiya, a user with over 700,0000 followers on Twitter too shared the claim.

Filmmaker who’s been often touted to make propaganda movies, Vivek Agnihotri also participated in the campaign by releasing the following tweet.

Photo courtesy: The Quint

This claim seems to have gone viral on social media with many, including Pallavi, drawing comparisons with the Gandhi family. According to a fact check by The Quint, this is fake news. While the image depicting current Netanyahu saying farewell to his youngest son, Avner Netanyahu, as he enlisted in the military, is real; however it is a photo from 2014. The Quint reveals how it verified the image to be from 2004 using a variety of methods, including finding a report which attested to the same from 2004.

Similarly, Aditya Kaul who claims to be a journalist has been consistently following talking about the issue. He recently posted a tweet describing an alleged brutal incident of assault.

“A pregnant woman in Southern Israel was found by Hamas terrorists. They dissected her body. Her stomach was cut open and they took the fetus out with the umbilical cord. And let the unborn child die slowly out of his mother’s womb. This is what inhuman savages Hamas do to people.”

However, there has been, thus far, no corroboration of such a report. Similarly, twitter users also pointed out that X’s provision of Community Notes clarified that this was in reality an instance from the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinians and Lebanese Shias by Israel. It must also be of note that this incident bears strong resemblance to the incident of violence that occured with Bilkis Bano in 2002 Gujarat pogrom. Kaul’s LinkedIn account represents his work as a assistant editor at TV9, and also credits him as a faculty member at the Internal Security Academy, Government of India.

Hashtags wielding anti-Muslim sentiment

As many Jewish people rally against Netanyahu as the number of deaths rise and the hostage negotiation seems to head nowhere, Indians online seem to be asserting their support. However, this stance of several right-wing Indians too seems lodged in Islamophobia.

On the Indian side of the hashtags, StandwithIsrael, IndiawithIsrael, Israel_Palestineconflict one can further see accounts with saffron symbols etched on these anonymous accounts. One such account, The Saffron Bharat, with Savarkar, Bhagat Singh both etched on his profile photo, tweeted the following.

Another user, with an account of the similar kind, tweeted in the aftermath of the latest India-Pakistan match, tweeted the following mocking the Muslim ritual prayer – namaz.

Similar tweets depicting a dwindling sportsmanship have flooded the internet after the cricket final took place on Saturday.

Another seemingly anonymous and right-winger oriented account tweeted the following, “They are scared of Kafirs. .. .. We are done with Satans /Shaitan”

Hashtag such as StandwithPalestine too had tweets mocking Muslims, such as the following.

SagasofBharat tweeted another post, “What indian Muslims couldn’t do Palestine did it. It took one Palestine attack to suddenly change these Hindu leftists.”

Similarly, the hashtag ‘Namaz’ also was replete with inhumane discussions of Muslims. An account named KR Tripathi tweeted the following, using abusive language and slurs for Muslims, after an alleged incident in France.

Asserting that ‘everyone #StandswithIsrael’, one user seemed agitated with the association of Palestine and namaz. Furthermore, the #IndianMuslims hashtag was flooded by dozens of accounts posting about supporting Israel, and how Muslims in India support ‘terrorists’, ‘snakes’, and traitors. The alleged support for the Israeli state by these users seemed to be distinctly filled with anti-Muslim sentiment, as can be seen below. The user below seems keen to depict Muslims as traitors.

Another user named Anuj Singh called Muslims ‘snakes’.

Another such tweet one one of these hashtags ‘Muslims in India’ stated that “95% of Muslims in India support #HamasTerrorist no matter how cruelly they k!lled Israel ppl While 50% of Hindus still believe that Nupur Sharma is wrong.”

Another user, named Aditya, posited the same statement “95% of Muslims in India support #HamasTerrorist no matter how cruelly they k!lled Israel ppl While 50% of Hindus still believe that Nupur Sharma is wrong.”

Tweets alluding to Muslims as traitors further flooded the hashtag, in a pernicious attempt to blame Muslims and further spew hatred against them. Nuper J Sharrma head of the right-wing media portal OP India also tweeted in similar lines:

Going one step further, Sudharshan News even ran a programme titled ‘Hindustan aur Bangladeshi mein Badi Gaza banne waali thi’, with Suresh Chavhanke drolling, “There was to be a bigger Gaza in India, from Pakistan to Bangladesh 16 km wide, 2000 km long.. A long road within which India would have been broken. Gaza wasn’t made to happen in India, this is why Gandhi was assassinated!”

In 2019, Apoorvanand wrote on the growing close ties between Israel and India, noting, “The previous Modi regime saw an unprecedented and brazen support for Israel — something that existed but at a lower scale and covertly until then. In July 2017, Modi became the first Prime Minister of India to visit Israel, Netanyahu visited India six months later. Under this regime trade relations between India and Israel grew remarkably, India’s film industry was roped in for Israel’s PR through a government to government agreement, and most crucially, India bought almost 50% of Israel’s weapons exports in the period from 2013-2017. These weapons are sold by Israel as ‘field-tested’, for they have been used to kill and maim Palestinians- obviously the best way to sell weapons from Israel’s perspective. These weapons are then used to crush political struggles in India. Along with its weapons, Israel also sells its methodology of asymmetrical violence and surveillance.” These factors point towards the fact that there has been an unprecedented growth in relations between Israel and India – and in that sense encouragement of Indians to see Israel as a friendly country.

Hurdles in accessing free and factual information across the globe

Global institutions have noted the rampant spread of misinformation on the internet. Social media sites including Facebook, X, and Tik Tok are under the limelight for the amount of unverified information flooding them. According to a report by ABC news, X, formerly Twitter, is no longer efficiently acting against fake news. Furthermore, its algorithm seems to be giving preference to posts from accounts that pay for its blue-check subscription service, regardless of who the tweet belongs to and what the content of the tweet may be.

Thereonwards, if any of these posts go viral, then verified creators of these posts receive payments from X. This not only increases the reach of news that may be false and may cater to majoritarian demands, but it might also provide automatic monetary incentive for creators of fake news to make their misinformation reach a wider audience in exchange for money. While the European Union has expressed concerns to Elon Musk about misinformation and content that may be illegal according to Europe’s new law the Digital Services Act on X. On October 12, the EU further took action by issuing a formal request to X and opening an investigation.

The EU is known to have stringent regulation rules for online content. The social media site has been given a one week deadline until October 18 to address the inquiries regarding how functional its crisis-response protocol is. Additionally, X must also respond to other questions by October 31, as stated in the commission’s official announcement. Two weeks earlier, the EU had accused X of having the most rampant disinformation. The exchange between EU’s Thiery Breton and Elon Musk can be seen below. The news release also pointed out that X could face potential fines if they provide the commission with inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading information or even 5 % of their daily global earnings.

 

Responding to the commissioner’s letter, Musk wrote: “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports. Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them. Merci beaucoup.”

The EU also sent a different version of the same letter to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.

According to The Guardian, Elon Musk has disbanded the X’s Trust and Safety Council, which was responsible for content moderation and combating hate speech and harassment. In its stead X has introduced something called Community Notes, which focuses on crowdsourced moderation. The community notes initiative places a significant responsibility on users to rectify factual inaccuracies rather than relying on professional content moderators.

Thus, with rising misinformation across the globe, with a substantial amount of misinformation and hate being spread on the Indian side, it is incredulous that more is not being done for curbing these campaigns, which in India seem to have one targeted appeal – which is to orient sentiment against Muslims. It has been observed above that the BJP tries to wrestle news events and gather sentiments to turn anti-Muslim with the help of their IT-Cell which runs ‘parallel campaigns’ to polarise people. Hate speech has been a known precursor to violence. As the news of a harrowing incident where a 6 year old Palestinian child was murdered and his mother attacked comes in from Chicago, USA, it is pertinent for governments to be vigilant in times such as these and curb misinformation and hate campaigns to prevent further attacks against vulnerable minorities worldwide.

 

Related:

BJP’s “parallel” IT Cell exposed by Washington Post

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INDIA alliance writes to Facebook, Google CEOs on ‘Communal Hatred’, ‘Neutrality’

Meta Facebook releases second human rights report, activists say no concrete plan to tackle issues in India

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