EU DisinfoLab exposes Indian disinformation campaign

The EU DisinfoLab in a new investigation, titled Bad Sources,  has disclosed that leading Indian media outlet Asian News International (ANI) was involved in using non-existent sources to spread propaganda against Pakistan.

The European Union (EU) DisinfoLab highlighted that ANI, which offers content to many well-established media across India, continues to spread disinformation.

The latest investigation revealed that ANI had been repeatedly quoting a think tank that was dissolved in 2014 and therefore no longer exists.

“The 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,” said the report called ‘Bad Sources (BS).’

“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’,” said the DisinfoLab.

#BadSources – our latest investigation into how Indian news agency ANI repeatedly quoted non-existent bloggers, experts, journalists and think tanks spreading anti-Pakistan/China narratives in India. 🧵1/Nhttps://t.co/24o5ekFwUE#BadSources #StoryKillers

— EU DisinfoLab (@DisinfoEU) February 23, 2023

“A think tank, 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. We had already observed this identity-hijacking pattern in our previous Indian Chronicles investigation,” it said.

“We assess 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.”

In its previous reports, the EU DisinfoLab 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.