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Glad that the EU Disinfo team discussed the curious case of “James Duglous Crickton” in their report.
I immediately spotted the persona in 2016 as dubious & likely created by Indian intel/BJP bc “HE” COULD NOT SPELL “HIS” OWN NAME. The misspelling occurs in all of “his” opeds.
I immediately spotted the persona in 2016 as dubious & likely created by Indian intel/BJP bc “HE” COULD NOT SPELL “HIS” OWN NAME. The misspelling occurs in all of “his” opeds.
So someone in India invented a persona “James Doglous Crickton,” whose “writings” are published on “his” own blog & a site that takes user-submitted content.
They went for an Anglo name. In the local context that confers automatic legitimacy. But they misspelled it, lol.
They went for an Anglo name. In the local context that confers automatic legitimacy. But they misspelled it, lol.
In one instance, an article written using the name “James Doglous Crickton” (purportedly an “investigative journalist in London”) alleged that former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf had a Swiss bank account.
(Context: This was a few months after Panama Leaks.)
(Context: This was a few months after Panama Leaks.)
So @ANI news service, which works as a proxy of the Indian gov’t, then quoted the article on Musharraf written in the name of the fictitious “James Doglous Crickton.” ANI’s content is disseminated on Yahoo News (through a partnership) as well as top Indian newspapers. Went viral.
So this fake story about a former Pakistani ruler written by some Indian guy in the name of a fictitious white man was actually was picked up by the Pakistani press, including the @etribune, which has since deleted its article, but the tweet remains up: https://twitter.com/etribune/status/749162817584934912
I asked @ANI’s editor @smitaprakash about this fake white man her outlet quoted.
This was her lame response:
This was her lame response:
In this case, Indian disinfo made its way into the Pakistani press, partly due to the growing civ-mil divide/Panama Papers fallout.
But this report is focused on India’s vast disinfo activities targeting the EU & UN, using astroturf groups & more. https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/indian-chronicles-deep-dive-into-a-15-year-operation-targeting-the-eu-and-un-to-serve-indian-interests
But this report is focused on India’s vast disinfo activities targeting the EU & UN, using astroturf groups & more. https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/indian-chronicles-deep-dive-into-a-15-year-operation-targeting-the-eu-and-un-to-serve-indian-interests
Turns out Smita Prakash & I traded a few more tweets on this.
Worth noting: she linked to Crickton’s blog, which had just been created a few days earlier, lol.
She accused me of having a “fake DP.” My DP then was a pic of Jinnah smoking. Wasn’t pretending to be him, of course.
Worth noting: she linked to Crickton’s blog, which had just been created a few days earlier, lol.
She accused me of having a “fake DP.” My DP then was a pic of Jinnah smoking. Wasn’t pretending to be him, of course.
I managed to find a video of @smitaprakash’s friend, “James Duglous Crickton”:
Another video of “James Duglous Crickton”
