Russia may target the media in countries like India and Brazil to interfere in their elections. Philip, however, did not elaborate further about his allegations.
Washington: The UPA-era had seen the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh-led government rocked by two news breaks from Russian sources: Books Mitrokhin Archives II by KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin and KGB: State Within A State by journalist Yevgenia Albats. The first alleged that Indian governments up to Indira Gandhi's were puppets in the hands of Soviet spy agency KGB. The second alleged that Rajiv Gandhi used to receive payments from KGB in the period 1971-91 via an account in the name of Rahul Gandhi.
Now there is news that the upcoming elections in India may be targeted by Russian hackers, says an Oxford social media expert.
N Howard, a statutory Professor of Internet Studies at the Oxford Internet Institute and Balliol College at the University of Oxford came during a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Foreign Influence on Social Media platforms and said that after allegedly meddling with the 2016 US presidential election, Russian hackers have their eyes on the Indian elections.
Russia may target the media in countries like India and Brazil to interfere in their elections. Philip, however, did not elaborate further about his allegations.
The situation could be more dangerous in those countries where the media is not as professional as that of the US, he said. Howard’s mention of likely Russian interference in the Indian and Brazilian elections through their media, without any further explanation, came in response to a question from Senator Susan Collins after he gave some examples of such interference in the Hungarian media.
“The United States actually has the most professionalised media in the world. It’s learned certainly to evaluate their sources and no longer report tweets as is given,” Howard said.
“I would say that the greater concern would be amongst the media institutions in our democratic allies. I believe that the Russians have moved from targeting us, in particular, to Brazil and India; other enormous democracies that will be running elections in the next few years,” Howard said.
“While we still see significant Russian activity, those countries have the media institutions that need learn, need to develop,” Howard said. There were no follow up questions from lawmakers on these countries.
The powerful Senate committee held the hearing on the foreign influence on social media platforms with the focus on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.
In a January 2017 assessment, top US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
During the hearing, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Vice Chairman Senator Mark Warner alleged that Russia’s active measures have revealed a dark underbelly of the social media ecosystem.
“These same tools that spread misinformation can negatively affect other aspects of our lives,” Warner said.
Warner, who is also co-chair of the Senate India Caucus said that the United States government is not well-positioned to detect, track or counter these types of influence operations on social media.
It’s, however, not a one-sided affair. Out of the two archrivals of the Cold War era, the US interferes in Indian politics, too. That happened to be one of the reasons for the Narendra Modi government’s crackdown on NGOs that received funds from foreign sources in general and American sources in particular.
The ‘mass movements’ of the early part of this decade, India Against Corruption led by Anna Hazare being the most prominent of them, were largely run by NGOs that got their money from Ford Foundation, Greenpeace, Rockefeller Foundation, etc. Some of the activists went on to participate in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Ford-funded activists also almost exclusively constituted Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council.
It has also been widely reported that Ford Foundation is a front of Pentagon, aimed at fuelling disturbance in emerging economies like Brazil and India, apparently to affect the competition to American goods in the international market. Also, a large section of formerly communist activists of India settles in the United States to foment such ‘movements’ in this country.
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