NEW DELHI: India’s election watchdog says it has forced Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to take down hundreds of posts during the country’s election but experts say it is just a drop in an ocean of misinformation that has engulfed voters.
The ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition Congress party have thrown armies of “cyber warriors” into a bitter social media war for the six weeks of voting that ends Sunday.
The arch-rivals accuse each other of deploying social media dark arts such as automated bots and trolls to bombard voters with messages, fake and real.
No blow has been too low in the war of words and videos between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
Real-life insults traded by the two — Gandhi calling Modi a “thief,” Modi deriding his opponent as “pappu,” or fool — get shared thousands of times on WhatsApp and Twitter within minutes.
But so do photoshopped images of longtime foe Pakistan’s flag at Gandhi rallies, or Modi eating with Imran Khan, prime minister of Pakistan.
The origin of these images is unknown, but both have been debunked by AFP fact-checkers during this campaign. And experts say the fake news on a host of apps is swaying votes.
The 2019 poll has been “an app-based election where along with the positive voter engagement drives, WhatsApp, ShareChat, Helo, TikTok, Instagram are being used for propaganda and misinformation campaigns,” said Asia politics researcher Sangeeta Mahapatra.
Senior Congress politician Shashi Tharoor said in a recent editorial that there was a “danger” that “many votes will be cast on the basis of disinformation.”
Both the BJP and Congress have each spent tens of millions of dollars to reach the 900 million electorate who have become huge consumers of phone content.
Some 500 million Indians have Internet access — with 300 million on Facebook and more than 250 million using Whatsapp.
The BJP, the bigger and richer of the two parties, and Congress have hundreds of full-time social media workers. Tens of thousands of volunteers back them up by circulating the parties’ messages on Whatsapp and other platforms.
Congress social media head Divya Spandana told AFP the party has 300,000 Whatsapp groups and can get messages to up to 20 million people each day.
Spandana said her party only aims to be heard rather than attack. “We do social media trends organically, unlike the BJP who use bots,” she said.
BJP social media head Amit Malviya hit back. “Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account has been called out for using bots from Indonesia, Russia, Uzbekistan for powering his Twitter presence,” he told AFP.
The BJP has not given details on its network, but media reports say it has many more full-time workers and Whatsapp groups than Congress. BJP president Amit Shah calls the workers his “cyber warriors.”
Mahapatra, Asia specialist at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, said up to one sixth of chat groups on Whatsapp in India are started by political parties.
This “shows parties are complicit in the misinformation malaise India is suffering from,” she said.
“Obviously, their messages are not going to be hamstrung by ethics of objective reporting. It is an open secret that the IT wings of most parties are peddlers of misinformation.”
Access to Whatsapp, the main weapon in the election war, is virtually impossible for law enforcement and fact checkers, as it is encrypted.
Messages spread en masse on Whatsapp were blamed for lynchings in India last year. The Facebook-owned company has since restricted to five the number of times a message can be forwarded.
Backstreet stores sell software that can get around the restrictions however.
India’s election commission said that as of Monday, 637 Facebook posts, 145 Twitter posts, five YouTube videos and 31 forwarded Whatsapp messages have been taken down following approaches to the tech giants.
One police case has also been registered. Police have set up their own teams in different states and say they have had misleading videos taken off YouTube.
Authorities have not named any party, even though experts say it is inevitable that the big two, and their rivals, have a hand in the misinformation.
“There is desire and a lot of great people looking at this problem, but the technology is not mature enough to handle such misinformation, involving images, video and local language text,” said Kiran Garimella, a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology monitoring fake news in India and other countries facing crunch elections.
“We can also see that political parties are clearly invested in this, as we observe from special Whatsapp strategies by the IT cells of various parties,” he added.
‘Cyber warriors’ sway Indian election
‘Cyber warriors’ sway Indian election
- The ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition Congress party have thrown armies of “cyber warriors” into a bitter social media war
- No blow has been too low in the war of words and videos between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi
French court gives man suspended sentence for Iran consulate intrusion
The 61-year-old, a long-time resident of France who regularly attends Iranian opposition demonstrations, told the court he acted on Friday after learning the previous day that his sister had been arrested.
He said he had not wanted to “threaten anyone” but rather “take revenge” on the Iranian authorities, who he described as “terrorist.”
The court, in a ruling late on Monday, also banned him from carrying a weapon or approaching the consulate again.
Soldiers and police descended en masse on the neighborhood around the consulate on Friday after the mission reported an intruder entering with a grenade or explosive belt.
But police found no explosives on him or inside after arresting him.
A police source, who did not wish to be named, said the suspect had been wearing a vest with large pockets containing three fake grenades.
The judge said witnesses recounted the man “tearing down flags” and saying he “wanted to die.” Police negotiators managed to convince him to exit the building without his jacket.
A psychiatric expert found the man was of sound mind.
During his trial, the accused embarked on long tirades about the political situation in Iran, prompting the judge to remind him to “stick to the facts.”
The man had already been convicted for setting fire to tires in front of the entrance of the Iranian embassy in Paris in 2023, prosecutors said.
Citizens in the Islamic republic have endured increased repression since nationwide protests began in September 2022.
The demonstrations were sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly flouting the mandatory dress rules for women.
Executions — which activists say are a way to instil fear into Iranian society — have also continued apace.
At least 110 people have been executed this year alone, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group.
At least five migrants died during attempt to cross English Channel - La Voix du Nord
- People smugglers typically overload rickety dinghies, leaving them barely afloat and at risk of being lashed by the waves
PARIS: At least five migrants died in an attempt to cross the English Channel from an area near the town of Wimereux, local newspaper La Voix du Nord said on Tuesday.
The French coast guard confirmed there was a failed attempt to cross the Channel and said police were operating at a beach following the incident on Tuesday morning, adding there were several ‘lifeless bodies’.
Local police did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
The coast guard spokesperson said its agents were still operating at sea on Tuesday morning after what the official called a ‘busy’ morning, with several crossing attempts.
The Channel between France and Britain is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, making the crossing on small boats dangerous.
People smugglers typically overload rickety dinghies, leaving them barely afloat and at risk of being lashed by the waves as they try to reach British shores.
Asia hit hardest by climate, weather disasters in 2023— UN
- Climate change exacerbated severity of weather disasters last year, sauys World Meteorological Organization
- 79 disasters, mostly floods and storms, associated with water-related weather hazards were reported in Asia in 2023
Geneva: Asia was the world’s most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, the United Nations said Tuesday, with floods and storms the chief cause of casualties and economic losses.
Global temperatures hit record highs last year, and the UN’s weather and climate agency said Asia was warming at a particularly rapid pace.
The World Meteorological Organization said the impact of heatwaves in Asia was becoming more severe, with melting glaciers threatening the region’s future water security.
The WMO said Asia was warming faster than the global average, with temperatures last year nearly two degrees Celsius above the 1961 to 1990 average.
“The report’s conclusions are sobering,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement.
“Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms.
“Climate change exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and, most importantly, human lives and the environment that we live in.”
The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, saying they would have serious repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.
“Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023,” the WMO said.
The annual mean near-surface temperature over Asia in 2023 was the second highest on record, at 0.91 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, and 1.87 C above the 1961-1990 average.
Particularly high average temperatures were recorded from western Siberia to central Asia, and from eastern China to Japan, the report said, with Japan having its hottest summer on record.
As for precipitation, it was below normal in the Himalayas and in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile southwest China suffered from a drought, with below-normal precipitation levels in nearly every month of the year.
The High-Mountain Asia region, centered on the Tibetan Plateau, contains the largest volume of ice outside of the polar regions.
Over the last several decades, most of these glaciers have been retreating, and at an accelerating rate, the WMO said, with 20 out of 22 monitored glaciers in the region showing continued mass loss last year.
The report said 2023 sea-surface temperatures in the northwest Pacific Ocean were the highest on record.
Last year, 79 disasters associated with water-related weather hazards were reported in Asia. Of those, more than 80 percent were floods and storms, with more than 2,000 deaths and nine million people directly affected.
“Floods were the leading cause of death in reported events in 2023 by a substantial margin,” the WMO said, noting the continuing high level of vulnerability of Asia to natural hazard events.
Hong Kong recorded 158.1 millimeters of rainfall in one hour on September 7 — the highest since records began in 1884, as a result of a typhoon.
The WMO said there was an urgent need for national weather services across the region to improve tailored information to officials working on reducing disaster risks.
“It is imperative that our actions and strategies mirror the urgency of these times,” said Saulo.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the evolving climate is not merely an option, but a fundamental necessity.”
UN officials urge UK to reconsider plan to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda
- UN called on the UK to instead take practical measures to address irregular flows of migrants and refugees
GENEVA: Two United Nations top officials on Tuesday called on the UK to reconsider its plan to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda, warning the move would have a harmful impact on human rights and refugee protection.
In a joint statement, Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the UK to instead take practical measures to address irregular flows of migrants and refugees.
“The new legislation marks a further step away from the UK’s long tradition of providing refuge to those in need, in breach of the Refugee Convention,” said Grandi.
Turk, who has criticized the plan before, said that the legislation “seriously hinders the rule of law in the UK and sets a perilous precedent globally.”
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised on Monday to start sending asylum seekers to Rwanda within 10 to 12 weeks as the upper house of parliament passed legislation that had been delayed for weeks by attempts to alter the plan.
Other countries are considering tough measures to stem illegal migration, with Italy planning to build reception camps in Albania for thousands of migrants arriving by sea.
Asia hit hardest by climate, weather disasters in 2023:UN
- UN’s weather and climate agency said Asia was warming at a particularly rapid pace
GENEVA: Asia was the world’s most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, the United Nations said Tuesday, with floods and storms the chief cause of casualties and economic losses.
Global temperatures hit record highs last year, and the UN’s weather and climate agency said Asia was warming at a particularly rapid pace.
The World Meteorological Organization said the impact of heatwaves in Asia was becoming more severe, with melting glaciers threatening the region’s future water security.
The WMO said Asia was warming faster than the global average, with temperatures last year nearly two degrees Celsius above the 1961 to 1990 average.
“The report’s conclusions are sobering,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement.
“Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms.
“Climate change exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and, most importantly, human lives and the environment that we live in.”
The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of key climate change indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat and sea level rise, saying they would have serious repercussions for societies, economies and ecosystems in the region.
“Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023,” the WMO said.
Ranging disasters
The annual mean near-surface temperature over Asia in 2023 was the second highest on record, at 0.91 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, and 1.87 C above the 1961-1990 average.
Particularly high average temperatures were recorded from western Siberia to central Asia, and from eastern China to Japan, the report said, with Japan having its hottest summer on record.
As for precipitation, it was below normal in the Himalayas and in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile southwest China suffered from a drought, with below-normal precipitation levels in nearly every month of the year.
The High-Mountain Asia region, centered on the Tibetan Plateau, contains the largest volume of ice outside of the polar regions.
Over the last several decades, most of these glaciers have been retreating, and at an accelerating rate, the WMO said, with 20 out of 22 monitored glaciers in the region showing continued mass loss last year.
The report said 2023 sea-surface temperatures in the northwest Pacific Ocean were the highest on record.
Water-related hazards
Last year, 79 disasters associated with water-related weather hazards were reported in Asia. Of those, more than 80 percent were floods and storms, with more than 2,000 deaths and nine million people directly affected.
“Floods were the leading cause of death in reported events in 2023 by a substantial margin,” the WMO said, noting the continuing high level of vulnerability of Asia to natural hazard events.
Hong Kong recorded 158.1 millimeters of rainfall in one hour on September 7 — the highest since records began in 1884, as a result of a typhoon.
The WMO said there was an urgent need for national weather services across the region to improve tailored information to officials working on reducing disaster risks.
“It is imperative that our actions and strategies mirror the urgency of these times,” said Saulo.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the evolving climate is not merely an option, but a fundamental necessity.”
