A Tale of Two Indian Disinformation Labs

In an ever-evolving landscape of information and disinformation, a variety of terms have emerged to describe related occurrences. These include misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, fake news, misperceptions, rumors, fifth-generation warfare, and propaganda, among others. In recent years, two organizations with deceptively similar names have emerged as significant players in spreading propaganda and disinformation. The first is the Brussels-based EU Disinfo Lab, while the other is the New Delhi-based .Disinfo Lab.

The former i.e. the EU Disinfo Lab is known for its 2020 report titled “Indian Chronicles,” that exposed a network targeting the EU and UN with pro-Indian content and maligning Pakistan, for over a decade. The latter i.e. the Disinfo Lab was established in 2023 and gained prominence for its media reports exposing Indian media warfare fueled by misinformation and disinformation while running covert influence operations.

Despite apparent similarity of their names, both entities operate with vastly different methodologies, objectives, and scopes.

Since 2020, the EU Disinfo Lab released extensive reports and social media content under the title “Indian Chronicles – Subsequent Investigation: Deep Dive into a 15-Year Operation Targeting the EU and UN to Serve Indian Interests.” These reports revealed ties between the Indian government and a fake news website, surprising many fact-checkers. This report shows the extent to which India resurrected a dead professor and numerous defunct organizations and used alongside at least 750 fake media outlets to serve Indian interests, under the leadership of PM Modi. These defunct has been relying on lies to discredit nations primarily Pakistan, and China to a certain extent.

This whole campaign was aimed at bolstering India’s global perception, a sort of information laundering, with the ultimate aim of allowing it to garner more support from international institutions such as the EU and the UN. By pursuing its agenda of discrediting Pakistan,it effectively promoted Indian interests at the UN conferences and hearings, and thus benefited India.

Interestingly, Indian disinformation operations via cyber-meddling did not stop after the ‘EU Disinfo Labs’ incriminating revelations and comprehensive evidence. The propaganda continued but this time with a new name and new motive i.e. the New Delhi-based ‘Disinfo Lab’.

As detailed in reports by the Washington Post on 10 Dec 23, this ‘Disinfo Lab’ is closely linked to Indians including Lt. Col. Dibya Satpathy of India’s infamous Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). RAW has recently been a subject of debate with respect to its assassination attempts on foreign soils notably in Canada and the USA. Coming back to the ‘Disinfo Lab’, which was founded around 2020 and based in New Delhi, it is known for its covert operations targeting foreign critics of the Indian government and PM Modi.

The Disinfo Lab campaigns, which originally focused on bolstering domestic support and disparaging opposition parties, later extended their reach beyond India’s borders, aiming to influence attitudes on a global scale. The extensive dossier and social media posts reveal that the BJP government propagates conspiracy theories based on half-truths about a supposed shadowy network of political activists and ‘enemies’ of India, including in the United States.  

The EU Disinfo Lab and the Disinfo Lab reports highlight that Indian disinformation campaigns have always been nefarious endeavors to serve Indian interests both at international and national levels. Such networks are also part of the sinister propaganda campaign, which includes India’s active involvement in creating terrorist and separatist activities in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, sabotaging CPEC, and subverting Pakistan’s economic progress.

PM Modi has been sworn in as India’s prime minister for a third term. During his election campaign, the core of its message had been a diverse range of conspiracy theories making waves on social media that ultimately has been helping him gain the higher ground again. This is also evident from the fact where the recent seizure of commercial equipment destined to Pakistan on suspicions of nuclear proliferation by Indian authorities, serves as a prime illustration of how distorting facts lays the groundwork for advancing geopolitical agendas. Such tactics have always been used by India with an aim to isolate Islamabad and undermine its global standing by portraying it as an irresponsible State. It is also not a surprise that New Delhi has always been very successful in conveniently sweeping its own misdoings under the rug as evident from the ‘Da Cui Yun Debacle’ in Feb 2020 and the ‘BrahMos missile misfire incident’ of 9 March 2022. Such Indian misinformation and conspiracy theories — tinted with nationalist sentiment —reveal the arrogance of the BJP government and its governing Hindu nationalist thinking to consolidate its attempts at supremacy in South Asia.

What can be inferred from these revelations concerning disinformation campaigns affecting regional dynamics aimed at Pakistan is that Pakistan is confronting a novel form of hybrid warfare, incorporating strategies spanning from traditional explosives to automated programs, indicating a transformation in regional dynamics. Not only this, but the assertive aggressive Hindu nationalist foreign policy is highly destabilizing for the region as evident from the revocation of Kashmir’s autonomy in 2019. There are substantial proofs that New Delhi provides support to terrorist forces in areas like Balochistan province, providing them with money, weapons, and training that has escalated tensions in South Asia.  India as a State has increasingly become synonymous with lies, deceit, and fakery. Despite it, unfortunately, it is unlikely that the reports that have extensively uncovered a network of disinformation being run by India will alter India’s international standing. It is so because, the Western powers see India as a potential counterweight to growing Chinese influence in the region and beyond, irrespective of all the facts. The BJP government will keep playing the disinformation card against both Pakistan and China to neutralize its domestic challenges and to counter any negativity regarding it internationally. This puts the onus of countering such narrative on both China and Pakistan. There is a need to devise a collective strategy by both Pakistan and China to counter India’s disinformation industry in today’s mass media and debunk such disinformation to safeguard national as well as mutual interests.

Usman Ali Khan

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