Dubai: These attacks often follow a simple template. A story making serious allegations against a business appears online. It uses genuine details, such as the company's name, owners, locations or business history, and builds an unverified or misleading claim around them. Then the same story is published across several unrelated websites in different countries, often under slightly altered headlines with no bylines. To a reader, it can look like independent confirmation.That is what Dubai-based Best Oasis, which is a leading cash buyer of ships and energy assets worldwide, and India’s largest green ship recycling yard Priya Blue Industries, which runs ship-recycling yards in Alang, Gujarat, faced. Articles alleging money laundering and sanctions breaches named the firms and their owners, and a Gujarat police report that examined 14 websites, and was reviewed by Gulf News, describes the articles as false and defamatory.AdChoicesADVERTISINGWhen the companies challenged the reports through their lawyers and police complaints, one website replied to a legal notice with a price list: $100 for a guest post, or $120 for a link inserted into an existing article. Their efforts went beyond denying the accusations: they sought to identify who supplied the material, obtain supporting evidence and have false information corrected or removed.How the companies discovered the articlesThe response began after the articles reached the companies through industry contacts. Gaurav Mehta, CEO/Director of Best Oasis and SPM Shipping, told Gulf News in written responses that the businesses regularly monitor coverage and maintain alerts, but first learnt of these reports through word of mouth and private messages circulating within the industry.
