Pakistani propaganda handle "South Asia Index" again shares fake news about India.
Qatar security has detained 8 former Navy officials, working on contract at Doha, on espionage charges in Sept'22.
SAI has posted a thread today with all unverified and misleading claims.
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SAI cited "Qatar Media" without naming one that navy officials "may be awarded capital punishment".
DFRAC has performed a fact check & found there is no such news or press release has been published on any account.
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SAI said India didn't "acknowledge" it for "a year".
Both claims are wrong.
The detain happened on 30Aug'22, so can't be "one year".
And then Asianet news in Oct'22 & Dec'22, the Indian officials were in touch with Qatari counterpart & consular access was provided.
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"We attach high priority to the matter", said MEA spox in a media briefing 5 weeks back.
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Now, some info about this handle.
In Jan'23, DFRAC has done detailed profiling of this propaganda handle that often shares fake or misleading news about India, though Pakistan remains in the soft book.
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These are a few samples of Fake News posted by South India Index, compiled by @DFRAC_org .
In a nutshell, the handle doesn't leave any opportunity to malign India's image and feeds misleading materials to some ppl in India & outside who love to exploit situations.
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Even their domain southasiaindex(dot)org is connected to few of "(dot)pk" websites, which is being used by Pakistani websites.
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The headlines of the articles published on their website are good enough to understand on whose behalf South Asia Index works and what is their credibility.
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And if that is not enough, "Rebel attack" and "Indian-administered Kashmir" are the terms that South Asia Index used for the recent Poonch terror attack carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, where we lost our 5 soldiers.
Do you still want to believe this handle?
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This is not just one handle but this is a Pak agenda-driven network, part of #InformationWarfare and #PsyOp. These handles work in tandem, share misleading or fake news in order to cause political or social chaos, exploit situations against India and build a false narrative.
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FACT CHECK:
@IndianExpress published an article citing a 'fact check' for the fact which was never said!
Entire left cabal jumped on the news, in a very coordinated manner, misleading everyone.
Let's check it one by one.
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To start with, it was clear to everyone that said $21mn funds for India were CANCELLED by DOGE. i.e. it was funnelled but halted before it could released or received by anyone.
So, the headline "did not go to" itself is blatantly wrong by all means.
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This one line doesn't stop here but carries a hidden agenda and fake narrative crafting that "it was a big misunderstanding that USAID funds India to influence elections". Vicious!
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It looks like there is a big tussle going on between Fantasy Gaming and Opinion Trading (OT). There are links to the involvement of USAID, Ford Foundation etc in influencing policy makers against the OT.
Unmissable Thread🧵
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This is a relatively new subject at large so understand the basics first.
Fantasy Gaming 🏏 : apps like Dream11, My11Circle etc. which let users create virtual teams (like IPL). If chosen players do well, you win real money!
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Opinion Trading 📊: This is something new & rising platform like Probo. Here, users predict outcomes of real-world events like elections, matches, stock etc. Right prediction = earn money. Its like a stock market for opinions.
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The newly formed @DOGE cancelled $21M funding for NGO CEPPS for a program 'voter turnout in India'.
CEPPS website is defunct now.
Was it the first attempt at electoral interference in India by USAID? The answer is - NO.
IMPORTANT THREAD🧵
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USAID program "Elections and Political Processes", to "Promote legitimate contestation for ideas and political power through democratic political processes that reflect the will of the people".
Gimmicks! The real agenda is influencing the elections.
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In 2013, USAID pledged half a million dollars for India under the same category.
Funding Agency - Deptt of State
Managing agency - USAID
Implementing Parter - Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS).
In May'24 US State Deptt hosted an event bringing 22 young rappers, singers, DJs etc across the world, including India, aiming to promote "art as activism" in their home countries.
Do you know who was invited from India and Why?
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. @MikeBenzCyber , who is on a spree of exposing USAID and State Deptt for their funding flood to establish 'assets', just posted about a program organised by US State Deptt where they invited young artists for a two weeks workshop in May'24.
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Deepa Unnikrishnan (Dee MC) was invited from India. The rapper then had a moderate 96K followers on Insta, 66K subs on YT.
I wondered then what made her profile so special to be invited by US St Deptt?
I went through her public profiles and it seems I've an answer.
Its been one year of pran-pratishtha of Ram Mandir and what has been achieved after spending a whopping Rs 1800 crores on a temple instead of 15 hospitals of 200 beds capacity?🤷♂️
Let's take a deep dive.
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In 2024, Ayodhya overtook Taj Mahal and became the UP's top visiting place with 13 crores of domestic visitors and 3100 international, leaving behind Agra with 12 cr visitors.