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The dead professor and the vast pro-India

disinformation campaign
By Abid Hussain & Shruti Menon
BBC Urdu & BBC Reality Check
10 December 2020
Reality Check
REUTERS
The UN Human Rights Council meets at least three times a year and reviews UN member states' rights
records
A dead professor and numerous defunct organisations were resurrected and

used alongside at least 750 fake media outlets in a vast 15-year global
disinformation campaign to serve Indian interests, a new investigation has
revealed.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55232432 1/19
revealed.
The man whose identity was stolen was regarded as one of the founding
fathers of international human rights law, who died aged 92 in 2006.
"It is the largest network we have exposed," said Alexandre Alaphilippe,

executive director of EU DisinfoLab, which undertook the investigation and
published an extensive report on Wednesday.
The network was designed primarily to "discredit Pakistan internationally" and

influence decision-making at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and
European Parliament, EU DisinfoLab said.
EU DisinfoLab partially exposed the network last year but now says the
operation is much larger and more resilient than it first suspected.
EU DisinfoLab
@DisinfoEU
REVEALED: Indian Chronicles – how a massive 15-year

influence operation successfully targeted the EU & UN with
750+ fake local media and 10+ zombie-NGOs.
Executive Summary & full report: indianchronicles.eu

Here are the facts (1/n)
5:04 PM · Dec 9, 2020
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g
There is no evidence the network is linked to India's government, but it relies

heavily on amplifying content produced on fake media outlets with the help of
Asian News International (ANI) - India's largest wire service and a key focus of
the investigation.
The EU DisinfoLab researchers, who are based in Brussels, believe the

network's purpose is to disseminate propaganda against India's neighbour and
rival Pakistan. Both countries have long sought to control the narrative
against the other.
Last year, the researchers uncovered 265 pro-Indian sites operating across 65
countries, and traced them back to a Delhi-based Indian holding company, the
Srivastava Group (SG).
Wednesday's report, titled Indian Chronicles, reveals that the operation, run by
SG, is spread over at least 116 countries and has targeted members of the
European Parliament and the United Nations - raising questions about how
much EU and UN staff knew about SG's activities, and whether they could
have done more to counter those activities, especially aer last year's report.
Mr Alaphilippe said the EU DisinfoLab researchers had never encountered

such co-ordination between different stakeholders to spread disinformation.
"During the last 15 years, and even aer being exposed last year, the fact that
this network managed to operate so effectively shows the sophistication and
the drive of the actors behind Indian Chronicles," he said.
Some of the many news sites the investigation found to be fake
"You need more than a few computers to plan and sustain such an action," he
said.
The researchers cautioned against "definitively attributing Indian Chronicles to

some specific actors such as Indian intelligence services" without further
investigation.
Ben Nimmo, a disinformation network expert, told the BBC the uncovered
network was "one of the most persistent and complex operations" he had
seen, but he too was wary of attributing it to a specific actor.
Mr Nimmo, who is director of investigations at digital monitoring firm

Graphika, cited previous examples of privately-run large-scale troll operations.
"Just because they're big, it doesn't necessarily mean they're directly run by
the state," he said.
The BBC approached the Indian government for comment but had received no
response by the time of publication.
Of ghosts and defunct NGOs

One of the most important findings of the open-source investigation was
establishing direct links between the Srivastava Group (SG) and at least 10
UN-accredited NGOs, along with several others, which were used to promote
Indian interests and criticise Pakistan internationally.
"In Geneva, these think tanks and NGOs are in charge of lobbying, of
organising demonstrations, speaking during press conferences and UN side-
events, and they were oen given the floor at the UN on behalf of the
accredited organisations," the report says.
The investigation shows that the operation led by SG began in late 2005, a few
months aer the UNHRC was founded in its current form.
One particular NGO which caught the eye of the researchers was the
Commission to Study the Organisation of Peace (CSOP). The CSOP was
founded in the 1930s and won UN-accreditation in 1975 but became inactive
later in the 1970s.
The investigation found that a former chairman of the CSOP - Prof Louis B
Sohn, one of the 20th Century's leading international law scholars and a
Harvard Law faculty member for 39 years - was listed under the name Louis
Shon as a CSOP participant at the UNHRC session in 2007 and at a separate
event in Washington DC in 2011.
The listings shocked the researchers because Prof Sohn died in 2006.
HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
Louis B Sohn "appeared" at events years aer he died
The authors dedicated their investigation to the professor's memory, writing

that his name had been "usurped by the malicious actors in this report". They
said CSOP "had been resurrected, and its identity hijacked in 2005 by the same
actors depicted in our first investigation".
The investigation also shows there were several hundred pro-Indian

interventions by the non-accredited NGOs, which were repeatedly given the
floor at the UNHRC on behalf of the accredited organisations, pursuing the
same agenda of maligning Pakistan.
On other occasions, NGOs and organisations which seemingly had nothing to

do with Pakistan or India according to their stated objectives would get the
opportunity to speak at the UNHRC and target Pakistan.
In March 2019, during the UNHRC's 40th session, United Schools International
(USI), another UN-accredited organisation with direct links to SG, allowed its
slot to be used by Yoana Barakova, a research analyst with an Amsterdam-
based think-tank called the European Foundation for South Asian Studies
(EFSAS).
Ms Barakova spoke about "atrocities committed by Pakistan" during the

session. She told the BBC that EFSAS was a partner with USI and she was "not
responsible for organisational logistics". The BBC received no reply when it
contacted the director of EFSAS, who also represented USI at the same
session to criticise Pakistan.
Vast pro-Indian 'propaganda' network exposed
Outrage over right-wing Euro-MPs' Kashmir visit
India buzzes with fake news of 'civil war' in Pakistan
Fake pro-China accounts exposed
The primary news agency re-packaging and boosting pro-India content related
to SG appears to be ANI, established in 1971, which describes itself as "South
Asia's leading multimedia news agency, with more than 100 bureaus in India,
South Asia and across the globe". Indian news media, especially broadcast
media, thrive on content provided by ANI.
EU DisinfoLab found at least 13 instances of ANI re-publishing mostly anti-

Pakistan and sometimes anti-China op-eds by Members of the European
Parliament (MEPs), originally published on EU Chronicle, one of the fake news
sites linked to SG.
EU Chronicle was born in May this year when EP Today, a site flagged in the
previous disinformation report, was simply discontinued and renamed.
The EU DisinfoLab report said: "The actors behind the operation hijacked the
names of others, tried to impersonate regular media such as the EU Observer...
used the letterhead of the European Parliament, registered websites under
avatars with fake phone numbers, provided fake addresses to the United
Nations, created publishing companies to print books of the think-tanks they
owned.
"They used layers of fake media that would quote and republish one another.
They used politicians who genuinely wanted to defend women or minority
rights to ultimately serve geopolitical interests and gave a platform to far-
right politicians when convergent objectives could be reached."
AFP
Protesters demonstrate against Pakistan outside the UNHRC in Geneva last year
Mr Alaphilippe said the news agency ANI was being used to give legitimacy to
the entire "influence operation", which relied "more on ANI than on any other
distribution channel" to give it "both credibility and a wide reach to its
content".
ANI's news reports have found space in many mainstream Indian news outlets
and publishers. Its content was further reproduced on more than 500 fake
media websites across 95 countries, the researchers found.
Demonstrations in Europe conducted by organisations linked to the Srivastava

Group have also been covered by ANI, as well as by fake media websites linked
to SG.
Focus on the EU and UN

According to the findings of the investigation, the disinformation network had
a two-pronged strategy to spread influence.
In Geneva, the think-tanks and NGOs were in charge of lobbying and

protesting, and taking the floor at the UNHRC on behalf of accredited
organisations.
In Brussels, the focus was on the MEPs, who were taken on international trips
and solicited to write "exclusive" op-eds for fake outlets like EU Chronicle,
which would then be amplified using ANI, the researchers found.
A group of MEPs appear regularly in the investigation. One of them, French

MEP Thierry Mariani, has written two op-eds for EU Chronicle and was also
part of a controversial visit to Indian-administered Kashmir last year.
"If the Indian government is behind the newspaper [EU Chronicle], it is not my
problem," Mr Mariani, a member of France's far-right National Rally, told the
BBC.
PIB
Organisers and delegation members met Indian PM Narendra Modi during the MEPs' controversial 2019
Kashmir trip
"I sign what I want and I feel, it is my opinion. I have connections in [India's
governing] Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and I support the government of
[Narendra] Modi," he said.
Two other MEPs named in the report - Angel Dzhambazki from Bulgaria and
Grzegorz Tobiszowski from Poland - denied having written op-eds that were
published on EU Chronicle.
The articles under their names were also reproduced on ANI.
How to spot a bot
The human cost of 'fake news'
Seven ways to stop bad information
Asked what the EU is doing to fight disinformation networks, EU

spokesperson on foreign affairs Peter Stano pointed to the action taken to
expose EP Today last year.
"Exposing the disinformation and those who spread it is one of our main
instruments," he told the BBC. "We will continue to identify them and call
them out."
But he said questions about finances and transparency of NGOs registered in

Brussels were for Belgian authorities to answer.
Rolando Gomez, a spokesperson for the UNHRC, told the BBC that it was the
prerogative of NGOs to raise whichever issue they wish to address and
whoever they grant space to speak on the floor.
"There are no rules stating that an NGO must speak to specific issues. Doing
so would amount to infringing on their freedom of speech," Mr Gomez said.
The International Institute of Non-aligned Studies is UN-accredited and openly linked with the
Srivastava Group
Gary Machado, managing director of EU DisinfoLab, said he thought the

muted reaction to the revelation of the disinformation network was partly
because it was "clearly managed by Indian stakeholders".
"Imagine if the same operation was run by China or Russia. How do you think
the world would have reacted? Probably with international outrage, leading to
public inquiries and probably sanctions," he told the BBC.
But the activities of MEPs named in the report prompted criticism from some
of their colleagues.
MEP Daniel Freund from the Greens said fellow members needed to declare
their activities.
"There have been at least 24 breaches of rules in the past years. Not a single
violation has been sanctioned. So there is little incentive to respect the rules
when the worst that can happen is to file a declaration aer you have been
caught," he said.
Another member, who did not want to be named, said MEPs contributing to
sites like EU Chronicles had been identified as "election tourists".
"A ragtag group of MEPs from the bottom of the parliamentary barrel who
prefer to travel on sponsored trips by unsavoury governments rather than
invest in their mandate " the MEP told the BBC "How PR stunts with such
invest in their mandate, the MEP told the BBC. How PR stunts with such
individuals could be even conceived as helpful is baffling."
The BBC put questions to ANI and to nine other MEPs who have written op-
eds for the EU Chronicle and made visits to India, Bangladesh and the
Maldives, but received no response.
Who are the Srivastavas - and what next?

The investigations from last year and this year show a man called Ankit
Srivastava at the centre of the entire global operation that was uncovered.
More than 400 domain names have been bought through Mr Srivastava's
private email address or through email addresses belonging to his
organisations, the EU DisinfoLab investigations found.
The Srivastava office gate, with the Indian Institute for Non-Aligned Studies and New Delhi Times on the
right
Then, there's a case of the mysterious SG-owned tech firm Aglaya. Its website
has been inaccessible since at least February this year but in the past the
company has advertised products for "hacking/spy tools" and "information
warfare services".
Aglaya's marketing brochure mentioned the ability to "hamper country level

reputations" and described some of its services as "Cyber Nukes". In a 2017
interview with Forbes magazine, a man called Ankur Srivastava claimed he
"only sold to Indian intelligence agencies".
It's unclear what relation, if any, he has to Ankit Srivastava.
A third Srivastava appears to be Dr Pramila Srivastava, chairperson of the

group and mother of Ankit Srivastava.
Dr Harshindar Kaur, a paediatrician from the Indian state of Punjab, told the
EU DisinfoLab researchers that in 2009 she had been invited to the UNHRC in
Geneva to give a lecture on female foeticide when she was threatened by a
woman called Dr P Srivastava, who claimed to be a "very senior government
official from India".
Dr Kaur told the BBC it was Pramila Srivastava who had threatened her.
The BBC emailed Ankit Srivastava asking him to respond to this and the other
allegations in the report, but received no reply. When the BBC visited the
firm's offices in Delhi's Safdarjung Enclave, staff there would not answer
questions.
What might happen to the network, or how it might evolve, in the light of the
latest investigation is unclear.
The authors of Indian Chronicles say their findings "should serve as a call to
action for decision-makers to put in place a relevant framework to sanction
actors abusing international institutions".
Mr Alaphilippe said following the 2019 investigation there had been "no
official communication, no sanction, nothing. This passivity gave a message to
Indian Chronicles: you've been exposed, but no consequences".
"We think there should be consequences to disinformation and we expect

actions to be taken. The biggest failure from institutions would be if another
report is released next year on the same actors with the same techniques," he
told the BBC.
"This would mean that EU institutions are ok with foreign interference."
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4/15/2021 The dead professor and the vast pro-India disinformation campaign - BBC News

Home News Sport More

Asia China India

The dead professor and the vast pro-India

A dead professor and numerous defunct organisations were resurrected and

"It is the largest network we have exposed," said Alexandre Alaphilippe,

The network was designed primarily to "discredit Pakistan internationally" and

REVEALED: Indian Chronicles – how a massive 15-year

Executive Summary & full report: indianchronicles.eu

5:04 PM · Dec 9, 2020

12.5K 907 Share this Tweet

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

View original tweet on Twitter

There is no evidence the network is linked to India's government, but it relies

The EU DisinfoLab researchers, who are based in Brussels, believe the

Mr Alaphilippe said the EU DisinfoLab researchers had never encountered

Some of the many news sites the investigation found to be fake

The researchers cautioned against "deﬁnitively attributing Indian Chronicles to

Mr Nimmo, who is director of investigations at digital monitoring ﬁrm

Of ghosts and defunct NGOs

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

Louis B Sohn "appeared" at events years aer he died

The authors dedicated their investigation to the professor's memory, writing

The investigation also shows there were several hundred pro-Indian

On other occasions, NGOs and organisations which seemingly had nothing to

Ms Barakova spoke about "atrocities committed by Pakistan" during the

Vast pro-Indian 'propaganda' network exposed

Outrage over right-wing Euro-MPs' Kashmir visit

India buzzes with fake news of 'civil war' in Pakistan

Fake pro-China accounts exposed

EU DisinfoLab found at least 13 instances of ANI re-publishing mostly anti-

Demonstrations in Europe conducted by organisations linked to the Srivastava

Focus on the EU and UN

In Geneva, the think-tanks and NGOs were in charge of lobbying and

A group of MEPs appear regularly in the investigation. One of them, French

The articles under their names were also reproduced on ANI.

How to spot a bot

The human cost of 'fake news'

Seven ways to stop bad information

Asked what the EU is doing to ﬁght disinformation networks, EU

But he said questions about ﬁnances and transparency of NGOs registered in

Gary Machado, managing director of EU DisinfoLab, said he thought the

Who are the Srivastavas - and what next?

Aglaya's marketing brochure mentioned the ability to "hamper country level

It's unclear what relation, if any, he has to Ankit Srivastava.

A third Srivastava appears to be Dr Pramila Srivastava, chairperson of the

actors abusing international institutions".

"We think there should be consequences to disinformation and we expect

"This would mean that EU institutions are ok with foreign interference."

You might also be interested in:

The symbol uniting Russian protesters

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