ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Strategic Digital Information Operations (SDIOs) facilitate transnational authoritarianism in Turkey and India. Through a comparative analysis, it identifies the tactics, tools, actors, and narratives used by the AKP and BJP governments to shape digital discourse, suppress dissent, and reinforce authoritarian populist rule both domestically and abroad. These SDIOs include censorship, disinformation (including fake news and half-truths), and propaganda disseminated by governments, party-affiliated IT cells, trolls, diaspora organisations, and ideological supporters. The chapter focuses on state-sponsored campaigns of censorship, intimidation, and legal manipulation targeting critics and opposition groups, especially within the diaspora. Drawing on desk research in English, Hindi, and Turkish, it highlights how anti-democratic laws and regulations enable these regimes to legitimise digital repression. Findings show that SDIOs extend beyond national borders, targeting diaspora communities, foreign journalists, and politicians critical of the government. These operations aim to silence dissent, influence global narratives, and consolidate transnational support. The chapter argues that such digitally enabled strategies deepen the authoritarian reach of both regimes and pose serious challenges to democratic freedoms, especially within diasporic and transnational spaces.
