Russian State Supporters Amplify Indian Disinformation in Aftermath of Bangladesh’s Revolution

By Emily Kohlman

Indian state supporters leverage flooding in Bangladesh to continue to spread narrative attacks during the country’s transitional period following the ousting of the former prime minister, with Russian state supporters boosting allegations of US involvement.

In the days after Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned following the government’s violent crackdown on student-led protests, Indian State Supporters  – referring to accounts affiliated with India’s ruling party, the BJP, or are otherwise marked as supporters of pro-Indian nationalistic ideology – worked to amplify claims of anti-Hindu violence in the South Asian country. Now, this network’s disinformation strategy has pivoted to allege discrimination against Hindus in Bangladesh, particularly as it relates to the current flood disaster. Indian disinformation related to the flooding includes claims that Bangladeshi Hindus are being denied access to flood relief materials and that the flood is emblematic of nature punishing Bangladesh for its anti-Hindu violence. 

Current tensions between India and Bangladesh, combined with deadly flooding, created a social media environment primed for the spread of misinformation. This led to the widespread circulation of the narrative that India deliberately opened the Dumbur Dam to flood Bangladesh without warning. India has denied this, asserting that heavy monsoon rains exacerbated the floods, and the resulting power outages complicated India’s ability to sufficiently warn Bangladesh about the automatic release of water from the dam.

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Indian State Supporters continue to drive existing narrative attacks by misrepresenting media to assert of anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh. They appear to benefit from increased circulation by Russian State Supporters to extend the reach of various disinformation narratives – especially one claiming that the United States played a role in ousting Hasina and placing Muhammad Yunus in the position of Chief Adviser of Bangladesh in the interim government.

LEARN MORE: India Disinformation Aims to Sow Division in Bangladesh Following Ousting of Prime Minister

This narrative comparison network graph depicts connections between authors in the three narratives highlighted in this blog. Yellow corresponds to networked connections between authors in the narrative, suggesting that flooding is nature’s punishment. Blue corresponds to the narrative that Hindus are being neglected in flood relief efforts. Red corresponds to the narrative that the US orchestrated a coup in Bangladesh. There is heavy engagement between authors interacting with all three narratives, even though only two leverage the flooding to spread disinformation.

Narrative Attack 1: Anti-Hindu sentiment continues in Bangladesh as flood relief materials are being distributed only to Muslims and skipping over Hindus

Indian State Supporters continued to leverage several disinformation tactics to launch narrative attacks, including inflating anti-Hindu violence by misrepresenting images and videos and using AI-generated or manipulated content and inflammatory language, such as referring to Muslims as “terrorists” and “jihadists.” Additional hashtags such as #HinduLivesMatter and #HindusUnderAttack are circulating and alleging anti-Hindu violence in other countries like Pakistan – indicating an effort to amplify assertions of a Hindu genocide more broadly across South Asia. 

When the flooding in Bangladesh began, these pro-Indian voices continued amplifying claims of anti-Hindu sentiment across Bangladesh by asserting that flood relief materials were being distributed only to Muslims, purposefully avoiding Hindus. Claiming that aid was being diverted from areas with large Hindu populations, this network also appeared to use these allegations of discrimination against Hindus to implicate Yunus or even the US, suggesting an effort to undermine and delegitimize Bangladesh’s interim government.

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This narrative comparison network graph depicts connections between authors, hashtags, and URLs. Yellow corresponds to claims of anti-Hindu violence in the days immediately after the ousting of Hasina on August 5, orange depicts conversations from August 11-19 alleging anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh, and purple denotes this discourse from August 19-29. Green depicts conversations from August 19-29 referencing alleged Hindu persecution as it pertains to the current flooding situation in Bangladesh, indicating that while conversations leveraging hashtags in support of Hindus due to alleged targeting in Bangladesh have dropped in volume, a network of Indian State Supporters is pivoting to targeting relief efforts.

Narrative Attack 2: Nature is punishing Bangladesh for its violence against Hindus

Another narrative attack emerging from the Indian State Supporter network claimed that the flooding was a form of retribution for Bangladesh’s attacks on Hindus. Pro-India voices argued that God was upset and teaching Bangladesh a lesson, “Mother Nature” was punishing Bangladesh, and the flood was a great example of karma for violent actions against Hindus in Bangladesh. Some even implied that Bangladesh would have to suffer like Afghanistan and Pakistan have for perceived wrongdoings. Negative sentiment toward Pakistan in particular, has been a strategy in amplifying multiple narrative attacks stemming from Indian State Supporters. A smaller pro-Indian network attempted to further demonize Pakistan by alleging that the country sent Bangladesh flood relief materials but that Bangladesh was outraged that some of the items were expired. These claims regarding expired aid are unsubstantiated and likely attempted to downplay Pakistan’s efforts to supply aid to Bangladesh.   

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This claim has been context-checked by Compass by Blackbird.AI.

Narrative Attack 3: The United States and the CIA orchestrated a coup in Bangladesh, has been influential in Pakistani politics, and will instigate similar unrest in India and the broader region

This narrative has been spreading since August 5. Still, pro-India engagement with it peaked just after August 8 when Yunus was sworn in and again across the first week of September in reaction to news of Yunus’s upcoming trip to the UN General Assembly in New York. While Indian State Supporters were the most significant cohort initiating and driving this narrative, Russian State Supporters were also involved – particularly in propagating disinformation promoted by Russian state media suggesting that the US was behind Hasina’s ousting. These conversations alleged that Russia warned Bangladesh in December 2023 that if the election results the following month did not “favor” the US, unrest and a coup would follow. Compass by Blackbird.AI provided additional context, confirming that there has been no evidence of this. Russian State Supporters were most active in discourse suggesting the involvement of the “deep state”/US in regime changes. Among Russian State Supporters in particular, anomalous activity was exceptionally high, indicating a highly coordinated effort in pro-Russian spaces to amplify the narrative that the US interfered not only in Bangladesh but also in Pakistan by ousting former Prime Minister Imran Khan. 

This Constellation Network Graph depicts connections between authors in this narrative alleging US involvement in the ousting of Hasina. Brown denotes Indian State Supporters, yellow denotes Russian State Supporters, and all other authors are visualized in gray. While Indian State Supporters were crucial in driving this conversation, Russian State Supporters aided in broader amplification efforts, as indicated by the smaller yellow nodes visible throughout the graph.

On September 11, Indian State Supporters did not garner significant engagement. Still, Chinese State Supporters and Russian State Supporters did, suggesting that both pro-China and pro-Russia spaces likely capitalized on the opportunity to attempt to sow disinformation about the US after the September 10 US presidential debate.

This line graph from Blackbird.AI’s Narrative Intelligence Platform displays engagements on posts from August 5-29, with posts by Indian State Supporters in green, Russian State Supporters in blue, and posts exhibiting anomalous activity in purple. Anomalous refers to unusual patterns of content propagation that would suggest the presence of a coordinated campaign. The highest spike of engagements for both Indian State Supporters and anomalous posts occurred on August 9, just after the interim government was sworn in, indicating a coordinated effort among Indian State Supporters to amplify the narrative that the US orchestrated a coup to get Yunus in power. Smaller yet notable peaks in Russian State Supporter engagements before and after Yunus was sworn in indicate that these users sought to bring this pro-India narrative into pro-Russia circles.

Additionally, Indian State Supporters circulated a map of South Asia with borders drawn, expanding the territory of Bangladesh to include parts of India, Bhutan, and Myanmar, claiming that pro-US networks were sharing this image – seeking to prove that the US was behind Bangladesh’s regime change and would benefit from a geopolitical shift. Other pro-India discourse alleged that Bangladeshi students were using anti-India rhetoric to target the “Seven Sister States” – referring to the culturally diverse northeastern region of India – and that the US is actively working to incite radical Islamist threats and facilitate a situation that would pose an issue to India’s security. 

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This line graph from Blackbird.AI’s Narrative Intelligence Platform displays engagements on posts from September 1-12, with posts by Indian State Supporters in green, Russian State Supporters in pink, and posts exhibiting anomalous activity in purple. Indian and Russian State Supporters both garnered similar amounts of engagement on September 6 and September 8 – primarily in response to news regarding Yunus’s upcoming visit to the US – but the highest spike in engagements during this period came from Russian State Supporters on September 11. This was possibly an attempt by Russian State Supporters to capitalize on conversations about the US government in light of the September 10 presidential debate.

The Way Forward

Transitional periods and natural disasters both create opportunities for disinformation narratives to flourish. The network of Indian State Supporters driving narrative attacks during Bangladesh’s transitional period capitalized on the chance that the flooding disaster presented, playing on preconceptions and biases to spread disinformation. This cohort aimed to sow division further and contend that Bangladesh is a threat to Hindus and India, using allegations of relief efforts avoiding Hindus and asserting that the flood is retribution for Bangladesh’s anti-Hindu violence. 

Narrative attacks stemming from Indian State Supporters benefited from additional amplification by Russian State Supporters, particularly when seeking to undermine Bangladesh’s interim government by suggesting that the US orchestrated Hasina’s ousting. Blackbird.AI’s tools are here to help navigate these complex environments by providing crucial context and analyzing where these disinformation narratives are coming from and how they are spreading.

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