One often perceives propaganda as a blatant exercise through which a message whose source is openly displayed is hammered home through various means of communication.

Examples of this often include the propaganda practices of the state and government in Nazi Germany (1933-45), Fascist Italy (1922-43), the communist Soviet Union (especially between 1924 and 1953), communist China (during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976), and theocratic Iran (across the 1980s). Similar propaganda appeared in non-authoritarian set-ups as well, especially during the Second World War (1939-45). 

Political scientists usually divide propaganda into three segments: white, grey and black. ‘White’ propaganda proudly displays its agenda and source. It can be as demagogic as pamphlets issued by the government in Nazi Germany that encouraged violence against Jews, or it can be as benign as a commercial organisation announcing an ‘award’ that it has received, even though in most cases such awards are actually paid for by the companies themselves. 

‘Grey’ propaganda is trickier to detect. The actual source of this form of propaganda does not reveal itself. It uses indirect means to push its message. One example in this context is the ‘planting’ of articles in newspapers written by men and women who may seem ‘neutral’ but are secretly serving the real source of the propaganda. 

Pakistanis often find themselves falling prey to propaganda. But in a world where white propaganda has given way increasingly to grey and black propaganda, it can be difficult to tell the agenda

The recent story on the cipher scandal in Pakistan published by the website The Intercept is a likely case of grey propaganda. As if to desperately prove its authenticity, the website went out of its way to claim that its source was ‘someone in the Pakistan military’. Yet it couldn’t help but sound rather vague in this respect. 

Then, certain posts on social media made by the authors of the story exhibited their overt pro-Imran Khan disposition. Right at the end of the story, the authors mentioned that they could not confirm the authenticity of the cipher that the source provided them. Yet, a whole story was constructed around it. Sometimes in grey propaganda, the ones being used by a hidden source might not be aware of this. They can get played too. 

Commercial organisations also employ grey propaganda. They quietly hire a known expert and use him or her to highlight the ‘benefits’ of the organisation’s products — but not of the organisation, because grey propaganda relies on the more ‘neutral’ messengers. For example, in the late 1920s, a US company that made packaged bacon recruited a well-known doctor. He was paid to claim that having bacon in the morning was the healthiest form of breakfast. 

This tactic is also often used by companies facing increasing criticism for making and marketing unhealthy products. Between the 1940s and 1960s, tobacco companies in the US spent millions of dollars to discreetly fund ‘studies’ mandated to ‘prove’ that smoking wasn’t as harmful as some independent research had begun to claim.

Commercial companies practise grey propaganda against other companies as well, especially against competitors. For example, a company making packaged milk may plant ‘studies’ and social media posts, by apparently ‘neutral’ folk, in an attempt to damage the reputation of competitors. This is when the line between grey and black propaganda begins to thin. 

Like grey propaganda, ‘black’ propaganda too does not reveal its source. But unlike grey propaganda that remains vague about the source, black propaganda attributes false messages to those it is targeting. A government can concoct a message or narrative that is against its interests or against the stated interests of the country and then attribute it to its internal and external opponents. 

During the Second World War, the Nazis dropped leaflets over Denmark, which was already occupied by German forces. The leaflets asked the Danes to accept a Russian invasion as a way to oust the Nazis. The leaflets were falsely attributed to a Danish liberation group. The idea was to demonise the group as godless communists. 

During the same war, Britain set up a few German radio stations. Most people in Nazi Germany believed that these were authentic German stations. The stations used subtle means to propagate anti-Nazi sentiments, confusing the German listeners who continued to believe that the stations were being operated by the Nazis. 

According to a May 2022 feature in The Guardian, “The British government ran a secret black propaganda campaign for decades using leaflets and reports from fake sources, aimed at destabilising cold war enemies.” 

According to the feature, “The campaign also sought to mobilise Muslims against communism, promoting greater religious conservatism and radical ideas.” The documents concocted by the British intelligence agencies and attributed to left-leaning Muslim groups and the Soviet Union also encouraged hatred of Israel, so that the documents would appear authentic. 

In the 1990s, the former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto often lamented that the country’s intelligence agencies frequently used right-wing publications to publish fake quotes of her to hammer home the propaganda that she was willing to dismantle the country’s nuclear programme.

In 1992, during a military operation against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), security forces produced a map from an MQM office. It was claimed that the map, which showed Karachi and Hyderabad combined as a separate country, was published by the MQM. More than a decade later, a former intelligence officer confessed that the map was a fake. 

Indian media is notorious for using grey and black propaganda against Pakistan. In April 2023, a rather insignificant Twitter account posted a photo of a padlocked grave in Pakistan. The post claimed that the grave was of a woman and it had been padlocked to keep the body safe from those who regularly indulge in necrophilia. The ‘story’ was quickly picked up by various mainstream Indian news outlets. However, an independent fact-checking website busted the story, demonstrating that the photo was actually from India, not Pakistan. 

In Pakistan, black propaganda is now often used by those who were allegedly trained in it by the previous military establishment (ME) to demonise opponents of Imran Khan. They were then dumped by the current ME. Fake quotes and documents attributed to Khan’s opponents and even to members of the current ME often appear on social media platforms. 

They are quickly debunked but, in this day and age, black propaganda aims to swiftly occupy the imagination of people who have all but lost the ability of critical thinking. Therefore, the debunking comes to be perceived as questionable, whereas the debunked retains its ‘authenticity’ in many heads.

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 20th, 2023