NEW DELHI — India moved aggressively to dismantle an elaborate cross-border disinformation racket after discovering foreign influencers filming impoverished Bangladeshi tenements and broadcasting them as the Indian capital.
The deception was brazen.
Roughly 150 Chinese nationals spent months fanning out across Dhaka's poorest quarters, pointing smartphone rigs at open gutters and dilapidated shanties while assuring millions of viewers on Chinese digital platforms that they were walking the alleys of New Delhi. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal slammed the operation during his weekly briefing, warning that the masquerade severely compromises those orchestrating it from behind the scenes.
Insofar as efforts by foreign elements to portray parts of Dhaka as Delhi are concerned, peddling of false narratives only undermines the credibility of the actors involved and those behind them in such an exercise.
Randhir Jaiswal, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson
Jaiswal confirmed that New Delhi pushed authorities to step in directly. The ministry officially urged relevant oversight agencies to take punitive measures against the perpetrators.
The coordinated campaign targeted specific, dense urban pockets across Bangladesh's capital. Influencers infiltrated working-class settlements in Tekpara and Uttara, operating for months with steady technical coordination.
They pushed directly past residential doorways. Streamers shoved cameras into private family living quarters to broadcast tin roofs, missing ceiling fans, and narrow communal corridors, openly telling viewers they had embedded themselves inside India.
One streamer, an influencer operating under the handle 'Mianmian' who claimed origins in China's Sichuan province, established her livestream beside an open drainage canal in Uttara Sector 12 on November 1. She spun a relentless narrative of Indian squalor to her domestic audience, describing the locality as filthy, broken, and unsafe while systematically misrepresenting her physical location.
| Disinformation Parameter | Field Finding & Documentation |
|---|---|
| Network Scale | Estimated 150 Chinese nationals operating on the ground |
| Target Locations | Tekpara lanes and Uttara Sector 12 canal settlements, Dhaka |
| Geotag Misrepresentation | Dhaka, Bangladesh broadcast falsely as New Delhi, India |
| Primary Medium | Chinese domestic live-streaming platforms |
| Official Diplomatic Action | Ministry of External Affairs called for formal enforcement and punitive steps |
The operations went far beyond standard travel blogging. In another documented incident in the Tekpara area, a Chinese national posted himself outside local roadside tea stalls, delivering crude slurs straight into the lens while neighborhood residents drank from earthen cups.
The vlogger falsely told his online audience that locals were serving and consuming tea brewed with "cow urine." He amplified insults targeting sanitation standards, dietary practices, and civic hygiene, building a venomous digital caricature designed to harvest anti-India outrage.
Diplomatic channels now face the task of shutting down the network. Indian authorities intend to monitor platform compliance and follow up with foreign jurisdictions to identify who financed the Dhaka deployment.