In August 2022, four Muslim men were arrested and accused of causing floods in Assam, triggering social media outrage and false claims of 'flood jihad'. Investigations, however, debunked these claims completely, finding no evidence linking the men to flood-related damages.
Despite the lack of proof for the 'flood jihad' narrative, numerous websites continue to publish debunked conspiracy theories, earning substantial revenue from ads, with Google’s AdSense enabling this misinformation.
Bellingcat's extensive search revealed that 53 unique websites, many established within India's disinformation ecosystem, repeatedly published 91 articles containing disproven hate speech, with Google confirming monetization of these articles.
The scale of online disinformation regarding this incident may extend far beyond the 91 articles identified, highlighting a troubling trend where fact-checking efforts are undermined by the persistence and profitability of false narratives.
Collection
[
|
...
]