The BJP IT Cell in India and its Islamophobic and hate-spreading campaign have been a talk out of town in the country as those who oppose the ruling BJP and right-wing groups would indeed have experienced its wrath in the form of false and intimidating content.
A similar campaign of spreading hate against Muslims in the UK on social media following a clash over a cricket match between India and Pakistan was later tracked back to India. At the time, the UK government warned against false and disinformation that fuelled the tension.
But after the Hamas attack, the international community began to feel the heat of false and disinformation emanating from India, with right-leaning accounts based in India actively spreading false narratives surrounding the conflict. There is a particular focus on portraying Palestinians negatively and supporting Israel.
Reputed fact-checking service BOOM has identified a trend of "disinfluencers" on various platforms, influencers who consistently share disinformation targeting Palestine and expressing support for Israel.
These influencers have been implicated in spreading fake stories, such as a video falsely claiming to show Palestinian fighters kidnapping young girls as sex slaves. Notably, the majority of accounts sharing this misinformation were traced back to India, according to a report published in Al Jazeera.
In another instance, a video circulated with the misleading claim of Hamas kidnapping a Jewish baby, gaining significant traction on social media. Seven of the top 10 most-shared tweets featuring the video originated from profiles based in India or those displaying the Indian flag in their biography, the report said.
The influence of these disinformation campaigns is not confined to social media alone. The report reveals that such content is also being shared in channels associated with an apparent open-source intelligence (OSINT) channel named Angry Saffron, operating from India.
This raises concerns about the potential exploitation of the credibility associated with the term "OSINT" for spreading disinformation.
A concerning aspect of this misinformation campaign is the evident Islamophobia intertwined with the false narratives. Many of the accounts involved not only share false videos but also engage in posting anti-Muslim comments on platforms like Twitter.
Some include hashtags such as #IslamIsTheProblem, perpetuating a divisive and inflammatory rhetoric.
The roots of this disinformation wave in India are attributed, in part, to the country's existing Islamophobia problem, which has intensified under the leadership of the BJP rule. The BJP's online social media army, known as the "IT Cell," has allegedly been linked to the spread of hate speech and disinformation.