Thread by @DisinfoLab

A social media trend #BoycottIndianProducts was pushed by #MuslimBrotherhood, a radical Islamist front using multiple fake news. It was supported by Qatar-Turkey-Pak nexus.

Objective was to hit India’s image. But the bigger target was Saudi.

A thread:

thedisinfolab.org/muslim-brother…

A trend #مقاطعة_المنتجات_الهندية started on Sept 23 protesting tragic event in Assam. It was also widely portrayed by many Arab media, claiming anger in Arab world about atrocities on Muslims in India.

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However what Arab media did not tell:

The trend was artificially pushed by MB influencers form Cairo, Doha, and Istanbul.

That the ‘news media’ were also affiliated with MB
And that the main target was Saudi Arabia.

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Key influencers all belonged to Muslim Brotherhood:

Al Sagheer of IUMS, a major MB front. Two former Al Jazeera journalist Muzaffar Zaidan & Abu Hilalah, both MB affiliates pushed the trend. Also, Sami Kamal El Din a designated terrorist by Egypt was a key influencer.

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Trend was orchestrated was also evident from data:

large number of newly created trolls retweeting a small set of posts to make it trending. 80% non-description handles were created recently, many just for the trend – and part of a close network.

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Fake news to push agenda:

The backbone of the trend was fake news, any video of violence from India was pushed as violence against Muslim, to create a sense of crisis amongst the audience. In desperation, old debunked fake news were also used.

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They ran out of fake news also

So they started using the hashtag with totally unrelated posts – just to push the trend up so that media could report – they used them on models to cosmetics to Jordanian border issue!

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The question was who wanted this trend to grow, and this became clear when some state sponsored media like TRT world, Al-Jazeera & Arabi21 pitched in. They tried to protect the Twitter trend as popular anger of the Arab World - not telling about the MB link and fake news.

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Turns out, the ‘news media’ were also Muslim Brotherhood afflicted:

This included Rassd News, Arabi21, Al-Araby, Watan-Serb apart former Al Jazeera journalists. Turkish state media TRT World even ran paid promotion of the story on Facebook!

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Kahi pe Nigahe kahi pe Nishana?

Surprisingly, we found that an anti-India trend had excessive number of anti-Saudi posts, targeting Saudi Prince #MBS (Md Bin Salman) & UAE. A Turkish Media Al Estiklal was having a field day hitting MBS!

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These platforms have run anti-Saudi campaign in the past as well, including paid promotions through Facebook targeting Morocco and Algeria, both having good relationships with Saudi.

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Saudi and the QTP nexus are not on good terms, and one of the tools used by the nexus to target Saudi is ‘news media’. Not a coincidence that these news media were also in the list of ‘news media’ that Saudi govt had asked the Qatar to stop patronizing.

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But why Saudi and MBS?

The fight for leadership of #Ummah

Turkey is projected as new leader of Islamic world replacing Saudi – done through TV series Ertugrul Ghazi to reclaiming mosque Hagia Sophia.

& Erdogan as new leader.

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the shift is visible in Pakistan

From tracing ancestry to ‘Arabs’, the Pak ‘narrative - shapers’ have started tracing ancestry to Turkey. Ertugrul was promoted right up to by Pak PM Imran Khan, and Pak media has replaced Saudi with Turkey as an object of eulogy.

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Why India should be concerned?

We noted in our previous report that Turkey is becoming the new hub of anti-India radical Islamists. A new nexus patronized by MB is emerging between Qatar, Turkey & Pakistan. This poses a unique challenge – from geo-politics to economy.

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The economic logic:

Most of these countries could not compete with India for global market share in a free and fair competition. And therefore, by damaging India’s image in the Muslim world, they plan to capture the market.

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The Third Wheel:

While the Qatar and Turkey might be playing long game, the third wheel – Pakistan saw an opportunity to target India and hone its info-war skills.

So major troll battalions WeareISPIANS, Team Emerging, Team Green Blood and Team VOIK etc. jumped in.

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Making hay while sun shines

Smelling opportunities in boycotting Indian products, Pak influencers along with the troll army decide to promote their own rice & give a scant boost to Pak economy.

Till date most productive use of 5th Gen warfare in the history of infowars!

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Conclusion:

This was not the first or last targeted campaign against India. But the focus and intensity on the topic, & the amount of misinformation circulated was enormous.

Our inability to see through this is a wake-up call especially for Indian social media users.

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Awareness is only antidote...

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