On Thursday, micro-blogging site Twitter suspended fake accounts handled by a Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for impersonating Noura bint Faisal, a princess of Saudi Arabia and Oman princess Mona Fahad Mahmoud Al Said for spreading fake news and propaganda against Indians in the Gulf.
Reportedly, Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI has created several fake profiles to spread anti-India propaganda in the Gulf region. One such account was @idanialusaf, impersonating Noura bint Faisal, a princess of Saudi Arabia, which was created with a fake ID named @NouraAlSaud. The handle was involved in spreading false news on India to peddle anti-India propaganda in the region.
Fake accounts are being created in the name of royal family members of Gulf countries to spread hatred about India.
Fake Twitter handle of Oman princess run by Pakistani
Another twitter ID @pak_fauj was found to have changed its name to Mona bint Fahd al Said @SayyidaMona, a member of the Oman royal family. This account has also been used to spread anti-India propaganda.
The Pakistani handled account had posted a tweet that went viral for its anti-India stance. “Oman stands with its Muslim brothers and sisters in India. If the Indian Govt doesn’t stop the persecution of Muslims, then 1million workers living in Oman may be expelled. I will definitely take up this issue with the Sultan of Oman. @narendramodi,” the tweet read.
Later, the real Princess Mona had to issue a clarification on 22 April claiming that the viral post was not posted by her. The Indian ambassador to Oman, Munu Mahawar, acknowledged the princess on the same day. “I thank HH @MonaFahad13 for clarification on fake social media posts attributed to her. India values its friendly relations with Oman and will continue working closely with the Government and people of Oman to further strengthen our special relationship.”
I thank HH @MonaFahad13 for clarification on fake social media posts attributed to her.
— Amb Munu Mahawar (@AmbMunu) April 22, 2020
India values its friendly relations with Oman and will continue working closely with the Government and people of Oman to further strengthen our special relationship.@MEAIndia@MofaOman https://t.co/9FET0ADw1r
Both Twitter accounts have now been suspended. Reportedly. ISI was behind the two hashtags – #ShameOnModi and #ChaosInIndia, which was trending on social media this week.
Pakistan’s anti-India propaganda not limited to fake gulf princesses
The witch hunt against Indians in the Gulf countries took an ugly turn last week after Pakistani handles on Twitter pretending to be Arabs peddled false propaganda of Indians, alleging that they were Islamophobic. Several accounts impersonating Arabs started ‘complaining’ to Prime Minister Modi regarding the ‘Islamophobia’ of the Indians.
Various fake handles on social media have been created just with the purpose of spreading falsehood against India. Shockingly, Indian Muslims, joined these social media users and businessmen, religious leaders to influence the Arabs and fed them with fake narrative against India. Media platforms based out of Gulf countries like GulfNews, Al Jazeera, Khaleej Times were used to spread misinformation about India and treatment of Muslims in India.
Netizens also pointed out that in the past few days, various Twitter users changed their handles to sound more Arabic and tweet against India ‘condemning’ the ‘hate’ against Muslims. Many also changed their profile handles and pictures to that of a woman and pretended to be a Muslim woman condemning ‘atrocities against Muslims’ in India.
