Fact-check probe reveals how the BJP’s propaganda factory works

According to a research report from fact-checking agency AltNews, BJP is spending crores on Facebook Ads to push propaganda against non-BJP parties and leaders

Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party is spending crores on Facebook Ads to push propaganda against non-BJP parties and leaders, according to a research report from fact-checking agency AltNews.

According to a Twitter thread shared by AltNews researcher Abhishek, an investigation into the BJP’s propaganda factory revealed that there was a network of 23 websites hosted on the same IP Address and linked Facebook pages working as pseudo-entities pushing propaganda ads by spending crores of money on Facebook, attacking non-BJP parties and leaders. The websites also include telanganaatmagouravam.com, which attacks the BRS government in Telangana.

---

“Alt News got an intel which informed us that a few websites are identical in appearance and have same IP address. The Facebook pages linked to these websites are running BJP’s propaganda and spending huge amount of money on Facebook ads,” he said.

One of the websites was phirekbaarmodisarkar.com. AltNews checked the http://phirekbaarmodisarkar.com website using the Website IP Lookup tool, and got its IP address (13.232.63.153) in the result. The IP address was then searched on the Reverse IP Lookup tool to collect information related to it, following which they found 13 websites hosted on the same IP address. In October 2022, 14 websites were hosted on this IP address, they found.

All these websites had the same interface, homepage with three pictures, Facebook page link, disclaimer and privacy policy page. AltNews, to find the history of this IP address used BuiltWith’s IP Address Usage History tool, and found the trace of 23 websites that were hosted on the same IP address since December 2019.

These included jharkhand2019.com; chormachayeshor.com; ghargharraghubar.com; thefrustratedbengali.com; phirekbaarmodisarkar.com; modisangnitish.com and nirmamata.com, to mention a few. Many of these websites were currently down, following the researchers tried to collect information about these domains with the Registration data lookup tool. They found that registrant data of all these domains was hidden from the WHOIS directory by using Domains by Proxy privacy services.

“Template and content pattern of these websites are same which contains a home page, disclaimer and privacy policy page, and a facebook page link,” Abhishek said in his tweet thread.

Similar looking websites

AltNews found one common thing in all the websites. The Facebook page linked to these websites had spent lakhs of rupees on Facebook Ads.

A search of the Ad Library Report of Facebook’s parent company Meta, by analyzing the Facebook pages linked to all these websites one by one, they found that from February 21, 2019 to March 10, 2023, these pages spent Rs 3,47,05,292 on 48,930 Facebook ads. These pages had run BJP propaganda in their ads and many of these pages were dedicated to attack non-BJP parties and leaders.

For example, ‘Thugs of Jharkhand’ was attacking Hemant Soren, JMM and Congress while ‘Chor Machaye Shor’ was attacking Bhupinder Hooda and the Congress. ‘The Frustrated Bengali’ was attacking Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress, while ‘Bhak Budbak’ targeted Tejashwi Yadav and the RJD.

The content

On the content advertised by these pages, AltNews found data in the Meta Ad Library showing that the Facebook page ‘Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar’ ran an ad between March 16-18, 2023, which was taken down as it went against the Meta Advertising Standards. The advertisement falsely claimed that Asal Toje, the deputy leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said that Narendra Modi was the top contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. This claim was false, and fact-checked by various fact-checking organisations.

Most of these Facebook pages have a huge following. For instance, ‘Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar’ has 4.2 million followers while ‘Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar for Uttar Pradesh’ has 1.2 million followers.

The BJP connection

Interestingly, all these websites have connections with the BJP, the researchers found out. For instance, the website http://upkemannkibaat.com and its mobile number were given in the 2016 posts of the Facebook page’’Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar’. On searching Twitter, they found this website and mobile number tweeted by both the official handles of the BJP & the BJP Uttar Pradesh unit.

BJP Uttar Pradesh had also mentioned this website and mobile number in its promo video. The BJP had used this mobile number in its campaign ‘UP Ke Mann Ki Baat’. In 2016, this mobile number was also present on the banner of the official Twitter handle of BJP Uttar Pradesh.

AltNews also checked the 2019 disclaimer detail of the Ads given by the Facebook page ‘Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar’ by applying date filter in Meta Ad Library report and found an address: 6-A, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, Near ITO, Minto Bridge Colony, Barakhamba, New Delhi, India 110002.

This was the address of the BJP headquarters, also given on the official website of BJP.

Here is the Twitter thread from Abhishek:

THREAD : Investigating the ruling party BJP’s propaganda factory. A network of 23 websites hosted on same IP Address & linked facebook pages working as pseudo-entities pushing propaganda Ads by spending crores of money on Facebook, attacking non-BJP parties & leaders. +

— Abhishek (@AbhishekSay) April 3, 2023