The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been involved in tarnishing the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the US State Department in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
The revelations were made by former senior diplomat Mike Benz in an interview with The Sunday Guardian in February 2023. He stated that besides the US agencies, influential think tanks and social media giants were involved in this campaign against PM Modi.
Mike Benz revealed, “If you are talking about US tech platforms interfering with the free flow of political information in India, that started before my time at the State Department. In late 2018/early 2019, the US-UK foreign policy establishment began a campaign to paint Modi’s political success as being the result of ‘misinformation’ online.“
I foretold all of this in a prophecy to India long ago ? https://t.co/oi8dqrZQma pic.twitter.com/9bJx2t7BGK
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) February 11, 2025
He further added, “When the US foreign policy establishment says a foreign country has a “misinformation crisis,” that is a cue to US tech companies to work with entities like the State Department’s Global Engagement Center or cut-out think tanks like the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab or counter-misinformation USAID fundees to censor the “misinformation” in that foreign country.”
Mike Benz revealed that the US deep State censored WhatsApp and other chat apps that were used to spread pro-Modi messages.
“The US foreign policy establishment leaned on Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, very heavily to limit the amount of WhatsApp messages that could be shared, which would therefore limit the amount of pro-Modi content that could circulate in India (Modi supporters disproportionately shared content on WhatsApp),” he pointed out.
He further highlighted, “When I was at the State Department, I saw all these same think tanks like the “Atlantic Council” were inundating me and my policy peers with recommendations to promote censoring “misinformation” abroad in so-called “nationalist” or “authoritarian” governments. Modi’s name was always circulated in lists that hit my inbox of places where US tech companies should be more aggressively engaged in “content moderation” (meaning censorship)“.
He told The Sunday Guardian to look up ‘counter-misinformation companies’ that propped up in India ahead of the 2019 election through the funding of USAID and US State Department.
“The State Department keeps close tabs on social media influence of political parties and when they are hostile to a foreign leader, they tend to let US tech companies know early and often,” Mike Benz added.
USAID spent ₹1.6 crores to recruit ‘fact-checker’ in India
In July last year, OpIndia reported how the Public Diplomacy Section (PDS) of the US State Department set aside a whopping $2,00,000 (~₹1.67 crores) to recruit fact-checkers in India as part of its ‘Empowering Media Savvy Youth.’
The US State Department is implementing the project starting 1st September this year in 5 cities of India – Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.
This scheme of hiring ‘fact-checkers’ to promote its narrative in India has been shrewdly called a ‘targeted digital literacy and resilience program.’
“In India, where social media usage is widespread among the youth population, recent research by Indian, European, and American think tanks has highlighted how manipulative content is amplifying societal polarization and erodes institutional trust. This consequently strains U.S.-India bilateral relations, threatening collaborative efforts and diplomatic ties,” the US State Department made its agenda crystal clear.
Coincidentally, USAID is now taken over by the same US State Department.
