EU rights activist suggests lawsuit over DisinfoLab findings

Vermaut says Indian govt should be held accountable for this in court

ISLAMABAD:

Describing the EU DisinfoLab’s revelations as “enormously” damaging, a European Union-based human rights activist Andy Vermaut on Sunday called for a lawsuit against the Indian government to avert recurrence of fake news propaganda.

“This should have consequences for Indian government that has the final responsibility. The Indian government should be held accountable for this in the court,” Andy Vermaut, who is an official member of the International Alliance for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms (AIDL) constituted by the United Nations, said.

In an interview with Islamabad Policy Research Institute, he urged all the victim parties to sit down together for legal proceedings against India for its “enormous” damage to Pakistan, China, European Union and the United Nations as well as the minorities living in India who were already suffering due to the Indian policies.

“If we don’t do this, new sites will be created tomorrow. We will have to act on this,” the activist, who is also the president of PostVersa, Human Rights and Fundamental Rights chapter, said.

Vermaut said the DisinfoLab’s revelations showed that even the Indian people were also deceived by their government, as it pretended to have the support of the largest parliament in the world and also the whole EU.

“Who would have ever thought that this would be possible that we could be so deceived today in 2020. No one would have ever thought that a country like India is dealing with such matters,” he commented.

He said it seemed the Indian intelligence services were involved in such matters as the false information drive was meant to purely hurt Pakistan and China.

He believed that such fake news campaigns could also be the manifestation of Indian jealousy over rising Pakistan which was attracting huge Chinese investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

“We now need to disinfect the internet and free it from such fake sites. Even large scale investigation is required,” Vermaut said, observing that the campaign was just meant to isolate Pakistan and China and portray a good image of India.

The human rights activist believed that it was the largest exposure of fake news sites in the world which had never happened before.

“This is of course not excusable. It is a form of propaganda that tries to put all Pakistani citizens and all the Chinese people in a bad light.

The European Union was also put in bad light by associating them with the so-called support of the European Union to Narendra Modi,” he said. DNA