India awaits election results after deluge of disinformation

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he addresses supporters during an election campaign rally, in New Delhi, India, on May 22, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 03 June 2024
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India awaits election results after deluge of disinformation

  • India’s elections brought with it surge of false social media posts such as doctored videos, images with false captions
  • Some fake videos showed Bollywood stars endorsing opposition, as well as purporting to show a person casting multiple votes

NEW DELHI: India’s six-week election was staggering in its size and logistical complexity, but also in the “unprecedented” scale of online disinformation.

The biggest democratic exercise in history brought with it a surge of false social media posts and instant messaging, ranging from doctored videos to unrelated images with false captions.

Raqib Hameed Naik, from the US-based India Hate Lab, said they had “witnessed an unprecedented scale of disinformation” in the elections.

“Conspiracy theories... were vigorously promoted to deepen the communal divide,” said Naik, whose organization researches hate speech and disinformation.

With seven stages of voting stretched over six weeks, AFP factcheckers carried out 40 election-related debunks across India’s political divide.

There were fake videos of Bollywood stars endorsing the opposition, as well as those purporting to show one person casting multiple votes.

Some were crude or poked fun.

Others were far more sinister and sophisticated productions aimed to deliberately mislead.

All were widely shared.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came under fire for posts stoking sectarian tensions with India’s minority Muslim community of more than 200 million.

These included numerous videos, matching incendiary campaign speeches by Modi, falsely claiming his opponents were planning to redistribute India’s wealth in favor of Muslims.

Naik said such posts “aimed at stoking fear and animosity toward Muslims to polarize voters along religious lines.”

“The ruling party’s strategy of exploiting religious sentiments for electoral gain has not only undermined the integrity of the democratic process but also sowed dangerous seeds of division and hatred in society,” he said.

False information was detected across the political spectrum but the leader of the opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, was one of the leading targets.

His statements, videos and photographs were shared on social media, but often incompletely or out of context.

One digitally altered video analyzed by AFP used Gandhi’s real boast that the opposition alliance would triumph, but flipped it to say Modi would win a third term when the result is declared on Tuesday.

Others purported to show Gandhi falsely appealing to people to vote for Modi.

Among the more egregious examples were those falsely linking him to India’s rival neighbors, Pakistan and China.

Those included a photograph that claimed Gandhi was waving the “Chinese constitution” during an election rally. It was in fact that of India.

Other posts portrayed Gandhi, a Hindu, as being against India’s majority religion, capitalizing on Modi’s efforts to cast himself as the country’s most staunch defender of the faith.

One video of a ruined Hindu temple, a real image from Pakistan, was widely shared.

However, the post falsely claimed it was from Gandhi’s constituency and that he was responsible for its destruction.

Another manipulated video falsely showed him refusing to accept a statue of a Hindu god.

One more claimed he was paying young people to support him on social media, when in reality he was talking about youth unemployment.

They were all widely shared by BJP supporters.

While political parties across the board have well-oiled digital outreach and social media teams, critics said the BJP’s sophisticated online campaign was driving posts.

Gandhi has alleged vast sums were “spent to distort my image” and blamed Modi’s party.

However, opposition parties also spread disinformation targeting the BJP and glorifying Congress.

Several digitally manipulated videos of two Bollywood actors criticizing the BJP and appealing to the public to vote for the Congress party were published.

Social media users also shared an old video to falsely accuse the ruling party of tampering with an electronic voting machine to rig the election in its favor.

“Overall, trust in content itself is falling,” said Joyojeet Pal, an expert in the role of technology in democracy from the University of Michigan.

Pal told AFP that Indian social media users widely understood the prevalence of disinformation and doctored content during the election.

“So there is a very good chance that they do not believe the doctored content to be real,” he said.

“However, there is a good chance they will forward these anyway because they align with their beliefs.”


Pro-Palestinian protesters take Israel sculptures from UK university

Updated 03 November 2024
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Pro-Palestinian protesters take Israel sculptures from UK university

LONDON: A pro-Palestinian group took two sculptures of Israel’s first president from a UK university in a protest marking the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, with police on Sunday confirming they were investigating reports of a burglary.
“Today, Palestine Action have marked 107 years since the Balfour Declaration, by taking two sculptures of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, from its display case at University of Manchester,” the protest group said in a press release.
Greater Manchester Police told AFP in a statement that it had received a report of a burglary at the north west England university at around 11.55pm (2355 GMT) on Friday.
The local Jewish Representative Council of GM & Region community group wrote on X that “overnight, criminals from Palestine Action broke into the University, smashed the case and stole the statue of Weizmann.
“We urge the authorities and Home Secretary to fully proscribe Palestine Action as it is essential they face the full force of the law,” it added.
In the Balfour Declaration, UK foreign minister Arthur Balfour spelled out plans to form “a national home for the Jewish people” in a 1917 letter to Walter Rothschild, a British politician and supporter of the idea of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
The letter was endorsed and published by the government on Nov 2, 1917.
Palestine Action also sprayed the London office of charity Jewish National Fund (JNF) with red paint, and carried out a similar protest at the Britain Israel Communications and Research Center (BICOM) lobby group HQ in London.
It also collaborated with students from the University of Cambridge, where Balfour was educated, to spray the university’s Institute of Manufacturing and Senate House.


Grenade attack wounds several in Indian-administered Kashmir — police

Updated 03 November 2024
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Grenade attack wounds several in Indian-administered Kashmir — police

  • Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947
  • The region is home to a long-running insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and militants since 1989

SRINAGAR: Indian-administered Kashmir’s chief minister on Sunday condemned a “deeply disturbing” grenade attack on a busy market in the main city of Srinagar, which police and media reported left several wounded.

“A grenade attack on innocent shoppers at the ‘Sunday market’ in Srinagar is deeply disturbing,” Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a statement.

“There can be no justification for targeting innocent civilians.”

Abdullah did not say how many were wounded, but a senior police officer, who was not authorized to speak to journalists, said nine people were wounded, all civilians.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) showed dozens of armed police and soldiers cordoning off the area in the Himalayan city.

The Hindustan Times quoted Tasneem Showkat, a doctor at Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital, as saying at least eight injured had been taken for treatment.

“The injured include eight men and one woman,” Showkat said, the newspaper reported. “All are so far stable.”

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947 and is home to a long-running insurgency.

At least 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in the territory, battling an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and separatist militants since 1989.

The grenade attack comes a day after Indian troops killed three suspected militants in two separate firefights.

In October, gunmen ambushed an army vehicle and killed five people, including three soldiers.

That came a week after seven people were shot dead near a construction site for a strategic road tunnel to Ladakh, a high-altitude Himalayan region bordering China.

New Delhi regularly blames Pakistan for arming militants and helping them launch attacks, an allegation Islamabad denies.

“The security apparatus must do everything possible to end this spurt of attacks at the earliest so that people can go about their lives without any fear,” Abdullah added.


Lahore primary schools shut over record pollution: Pakistan officials

Updated 03 November 2024
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Lahore primary schools shut over record pollution: Pakistan officials

LAHORE: Pakistan’s second city of Lahore will close primary schools for a week over record pollution, government authorities said Sunday, to avoid exposing millions of children to smog several times above levels deemed dangerous.
For days, the city of 14 million people has been enveloped by smog, a mix of fog and pollutants caused by low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning and winter cooling.
The air quality index, which measures a range of pollutants, exceeded 1,000 on Saturday — well above the level of 300 considered “dangerous” — according to data from IQAir. The Punjab government also recorded peaks of over 1,000 on Sunday, which it considered “unprecedented.”
“Weather forecast for the next six days shows that wind patterns will remain the same. Therefore we are closing all government and private primary schools in Lahore for a week,” Jahangir Anwar, a senior environmental protection official in Lahore told AFP.
“All the classes” for children up to the age of 10, “public, private & special education... shall remain closed for one week” from Monday until Saturday, read a local government decision seen by AFP.
The decision added that the situation will be assessed again next Saturday to determine whether to extend the school closure.
“This smog is very harmful for children. Masks should be mandatory in schools. We are keeping an eye on the health of children in senior classes,” Punjab senior minister Marriyum Aurangzeb told a news conference Sunday.
Smog counters have been established in hospitals, she added.
Breathing the toxic air has catastrophic health consequences, with the WHO saying strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases can be triggered by prolonged exposure.


Spanish royals visit flood-hit region as fresh downpours loom

Updated 03 November 2024
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Spanish royals visit flood-hit region as fresh downpours loom

VALENCIA: Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia on Sunday just after midday arrived in the Valencia region where devastating floods have killed more than 200 people, television images showed.
The royals, accompanied by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, visited Paiporta — one of the worst affected towns — and are due to move on to Chiva, another battered town close to Valencia, later in the day.
Hopes of finding survivors ebbed five days after torrents of muddy water wrecked towns and infrastructure in Spain’s worst such disaster in decades.
Nearly all the deaths have been in the Valencia region, where thousands of security and emergency services frantically cleared debris and mud in the search for bodies.
Describing “the worst natural disaster in the recent history of our country,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it was the second deadliest flood in Europe this century.
Sanchez was expected to accompany King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia as well as the Valencia region leader Carlos Mazon on a visit to the areas affected by the floods on Sunday, according to the premier’s office. The exact program of their visit has not yet been made public.
The monarchs’ visit comes as Spain’s meterological agency issued a fresh warning for heavy downpours in the Valencia region.
Up to 100 liters per square meter (22 gallons per square yard) of water could fall in the province of Castellon and the area surrounding the city of Valencia, the agency forecast.
It also sounded the alarm for torrential rain that may cause flooding in the southern province of Almeria, advising residents not to travel unless strictly necessary.
Restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages — some of which have been cut off from food, water and power since Tuesday’s torrent — is a priority.
With Spain deploying an extra 10,000 troops, police and civil guards to the Valencia region, the country was carrying out its largest deployment of military and security force personnel in peacetime, Sanchez said.
Officers made around 20 arrests on Saturday evening for thievery and acts of looting, police said, with the authorities pledging to crack down on those taking advantage of the disaster to commit crimes.
Authorities — including Mazon — have come under fire over the warning systems before the floods, and some stricken residents have complained that the response to the disaster has been too slow.
“I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages... towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives... we have to improve,” Sanchez said.
In the ground-zero towns of Alfafar and Sedavi, AFP reporters saw no soldiers while residents shovelled mud from their homes and firefighters pumped water from garages and tunnels.
“Thank you to the people who have come to help us, to all of them, because from the authorities: nothing,” a furious Estrella Caceres, 66, told AFP in Sedavi.
In Chiva, a town west of Valencia which Spanish media reported may be visited by the monarchs, Danna Daniella said she had been cleaning her restaurant for three days straight and was still in shock.
“It feels like the end of the world,” the woman in her 30s said.
She said she was haunted by memories of the people trapped by the raging floodwaters “asking for help and there was nothing we could do.”
“It drives you crazy. You look for answers and you don’t find them.”
With telephone and transport networks severely damaged, establishing a precise figure of missing people is difficult.
Sanchez said electricity had been restored to 94 percent of homes affected by power outages and that around half of the cut telephone lines had been repaired.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente told El Pais daily that certain places would probably remain inaccessible by land for weeks.
Ordinary citizens carrying food, water and cleaning equipment have continued their grassroots initiative to assist the recovery, although authorities have urged people to stay at home to avoid congestion on the roads that would hamper the work of emergency services.
On Sunday, the Valencian government limited the number of volunteers authorized to travel to the city’s southern suburbs to 2,000 and restricted access to 12 localities.
The storm that sparked the floods on Tuesday formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for this time of year.
But scientists warn climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.
Emergency services late on Saturday issued an updated toll of 213 people confirmed killed — 210 in the Valencia region, two in neighboring Castilla-La Mancha and one in Andalusia in the south.
Authorities have warned the toll could yet rise, as vehicles trapped in tunnels and underground car parks are cleared.


Grenade attack wounds several in Indian-run Kashmir: police

Updated 03 November 2024
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Grenade attack wounds several in Indian-run Kashmir: police

  • The Press Trust of India (PTI) showed dozens of armed police and soldiers cordoning off the area in the Himalayan city
  • At least 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in Kashmir, battling an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels since 1989

Srinagar: Indian-run Kashmir’s chief minister on Sunday condemned a “deeply disturbing” grenade attack on a busy market in the main city of Srinagar, which police and media reported left several wounded.
“A grenade attack on innocent shoppers at the ‘Sunday market’ in Srinagar is deeply disturbing,” Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said in a statement.
“There can be no justification for targeting innocent civilians.”
Abdullah did not say how many were wounded, but a senior police officer, who was not authorized to speak to journalists, said nine people were wounded, all civilians.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) showed dozens of armed police and soldiers cordoning off the area in the Himalayan city.
The Hindustan Times quoted Tasneem Showkat, a doctor at Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital, as saying at least eight injured had been taken for treatment.
“The injured include eight men and one woman,” Showkat said, the newspaper reported. “All are so far stable.”
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947 and is home to a long-running insurgency.
At least 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in Kashmir, battling an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels since 1989.
The grenade attack comes a day after Indian troops killed three suspected militants in two separate firefights.
In October, gunmen ambushed an army vehicle and killed five people, including three soldiers.
That came a week after seven people were shot dead near a construction site for a strategic road tunnel to Ladakh, a high-altitude Himalayan region bordering China.
New Delhi regularly blames Pakistan for arming militants and helping them launch attacks, an allegation Islamabad denies.
“The security apparatus must do everything possible to end this spurt of attacks at the earliest so that people can go about their lives without any fear,” Abdullah added.