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Strategic-issues

The Forest of the Far-Right Hindu Extremist

 India has become a fertile ground for the spread of false and misleading information. According to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), cheap smartphones and the rise of Hindu nationalism have made it easier for false information to spread. This has led to a decline in the economic and scientific level of social media users in India, as they struggle to distinguish between facts and fiction. Some extremist Hindu groups have taken advantage of this situation to spread misleading information that serves their own interests.

The Al-Aqsa Flood and the Lies of the Hindu Right

Even though India is far away from the Palestinian territories, it is not immune to the craft of deception. Muhammad Zubair, a fact-checking journalist, discovered a video clip on a website called "X" just a day after the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation carried out by Hamas. The comments on the post claimed that Hamas shot down four Israeli helicopters in Gaza. However, Zubair recognized the footage from a video game and previous images from the Ukraine war. This was just the beginning of a flood of misinformation that Zubair encountered on Indian social media.

The Hindu Right's Fake News Machine

Zubair, who spends his nights debunking fake news, found himself facing a massive amount of misinformation on Indian social media. He came across a video clip that showed a beheading, which was falsely assumed to have taken place in Israel by Palestinians. After researching, Zubair discovered that the event actually belonged to a drug gang in Mexico. Shockingly, two-thirds of misinformation about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict comes from the Hindu right, making them one of the world's deadliest propagandists.

The Origin of the Malicious Tree

A survey conducted by Microsoft in 2019 revealed that fake news is a growing threat in India. The country has witnessed the highest number of fake news incidents compared to anywhere else. The investigation by the BBC found that nationalism was the main driving force behind the spread of fake news in India. Indians tend to trust fake stories that portray India in a positive light, even if they contradict the truth. This distrust of mainstream media and the ease of spreading fake news through messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook contribute to the problem.

The Connection to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

What's even more concerning is the connection between the accounts spreading fake news on Twitter and the support networks of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An analysis conducted by the BBC showed that the hashtags spreading fake news on the "X" platform were linked to groups supportive of Modi's ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. This raises questions about how fake news is not only misleading people but also being used to incite violence.

The Hindu Nationalists' Use of Social Media

The Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Modi, and the Hindu nationalist groups associated with him are among the global political parties that effectively use social media to achieve their political goals. They have mastered the dissemination of inflammatory and false information on a large scale. This has sparked controversy about the role of social media in a democratic country like India. Recently, Hindu nationalists used the "Al-Aqsa Flood" to promote their local ideological goals and spread misleading information about the resistance in Palestine.

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Source: Atlantic + websites