Haven't done this in a while...

So @shrutimenon10 and I trawl through massive amount of research conducted by the @DisinfoEU, which revealed the astonishing disinfo campaign and influence ops carried out in UNHRC/EU to further Indian interests. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-55232432

Alexander Alaphilippe of @DisinfoEU say they never encountered such co-ordination b/w different stakeholders to spread disinfo.

"Even after being exposed last yr, that this network managed to operate so effectively shows the sophistication and the drive of the actors behind it"

Foremost disinformation network expert @benimmo tells us that the uncovered network was "one of the most persistent and complex operations" he had seen, but he was wary of attributing it to a specific actor.

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.

And then, there is @ANI which describes itself as "South Asia's leading news agency. @DisinfoEU 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).

Gary Machado, MD @DisinfoEU said he thought the reaction to the revelation of this 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?"

"We think there should be consequences to disinformation... The biggest failure from institutions would be if another report is released next year on the same actors with the same techniques.This would mean that EU institutions are ok with foreign interference." ~ A. Alaphilippe

The investigations from both '19 and '20 show Ankit Srivastava at the centre of the entire global operation. More than 400 domain names have been bought via his email. We emailed Ankit, asking him to respond to this and the other allegations in the report, but received no reply.

Personally, the most intriguing part in entire report was a case of the mysterious SG-owned tech firm Aglaya. Its website has been inaccessible since at least Feb, 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".

Ultimately, the important thing to remember is that this has been going on for a while, by all countries, at diff scale.

What @DisinfoEU has done here is to compile all the evidence together and put it down in one big, massive investigation which asks all the right questions.

As Alaphilippe says, the onus is now on the UNHRC / EU / EP to really look inwards and be consistent about their mechanisms to fight disinformation warfare which is so heavily waged within the hallowed corridors of these institutions.

Fin. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-55232432