The Disinformation Machine: Gaurav Srivastava, Wikipedia, and the Crisis of the Modern Reputation

In today’s world, reputation isn’t earned—it’s engineered. This is the underlying thesis of Targeted, the investigative podcast peeling back the glossed-over layers of modern smear campaigns. In its second episode chronicling the unraveling of commodities investor Gaurav Srivastava, the show trades the courtroom for the far more unforgiving arena of digital opinion. Here, every whisper becomes a headline, every click a judgment. And the consequences, we’re reminded, are painfully real. What makes this episode of Targeted so compelling-so infuriating, really—isn’t just the story of a man brought to his knees by a war of narratives. It’s the way the podcast captures the emotional and aesthetic dissonance of being digitally erased, rewritten, and misunderstood, while still having to show up every day, put on a suit, and smile politely in spaces that once welcomed you. It’s reputation warfare as trauma, and as fashion’s favorite genre—reinvention gone rogue. The Fall of the Polished Man Srivastava is no stranger to the world of polished surfaces. He once belonged to the elite circle of global finance, commanding attention in the rarefied air of high-stakes commodity trading. Then came a business dispute with a business partner. Allegations flew: his business partner was siphoning money and doing deals with Russian oil, while Srivastava, his business partner, claimed, was a fraud—and worse, a con man posing as a spy. But instead of a legal battle fought in courtrooms, Srivastava found himself dragged into a different kind of conflict: a public relations ambush disguised as journalism. The podcast’s host, Zach Abramowitz, narrates with cool clarity how a campaign of over 300 articles, most from low-tier or obscure sites, flooded the web with versions of Srivastava’s alleged misconduct. The point wasn’t to convince a judge. It was to shift Google results, saturate news feeds, and ensure that any whisper of Srivastava’s name carried the stench of scandal. Wikipedia: The New Battleground of Image Enter Wikipedia, the fashion of facts. A place we still believe reflects reality, even as it’s dressed and redressed by unseen hands. For Srivastava, it became the ultimate accessory of defamation: a Wikipedia page titled Gaurav Srivastava scandal appeared, laced with citations from the very same obscure articles seeded across the web. One user wrote the entire entry overnight. Not organic. Not transparent. But incredibly effective. “I went to Wikipedia,” Srivastava says on the podcast, “and I saw how they created a page... it’s just crazy.” It is crazy—and calculated. This wasn’t just vandalism. It was a kind of editorial couture: references stitched together to create a whole new identity, fabricated but well-fitted. The podcast interviews a seasoned Wikipedia contributor, known only as “David,” who confirms suspicions of sock puppetry—multiple fake accounts used to create consensus. Another contributor was found to be part of a likely paid editing scheme, even offering to speak on the record in exchange for $40,000 in cryptocurrency. This is more than reputation laundering. It’s digital tailoring, turning falsehood into bespoke perception. The Fashionable Illusion of Objectivity Where Targeted delivers its most cutting insight is in how it examines the complicity of established institutions in this crisis of credibility. When the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal eventually picked up the story, they didn’t fact-check the origins of the narrative—they simply ran with it. No context. No skepticism. Just the echo of earlier whispers, now draped in the authority of prestige. This is the media version of the emperor’s new clothes. Once a narrative is worn by enough outlets, even the reputable ones, it becomes fashionably true. The accusations against Srivastava, flimsy as they might be, were no longer whispers. They were stitched into the media cycle, modelled on respected platforms, and walked down the runway of public opinion with unearned gravitas. The Personal as Public Spectacle But behind the sleek facades and headline-ready summaries, there is a man—hurt, humiliated, and haunted. Gaurav Srivastava’s recollection of sitting in a school chapel, weeping during a children’s sermon about Jonah, is almost cinematic. “I identified with Jonah,” he says. You can see the scene: stained glass, quiet reverence, and a father broken not by guilt, but by the impossibility of explaining his innocence to a world that’s already decided otherwise. It’s not just metaphorical exile either. Srivastava recounts being de-banked, shut out by former friends, and shunned by other parents in his community. Birthday parties were no longer attended. His children, aged six and nine, were treated as collateral damage. “Every parent in the school turned their back on us,” he recalls. In the economy of reputation, innocence is unfashionable once a scandal has gone viral. AI and the Death of the Real In the podcast’s most daring segment, Abramowitz plays what sounds like a voice message from Srivastava. It’s articulate, measured, and totally fake—created with AI to demonstrate how easy it is to fabricate “evidence.” It cost just $25 and took 15 minutes. Deepfakes, once the stuff of sci-fi, are now another accessory in the arsenal of digital warfare. Imagine what a well-funded campaign could do, Abramowitz suggests, if they had access to real voice samples and far more time. This blurring of real and fake—the AI message, the Wikipedia edits, the one-sided articles—poses a deeper philosophical question. In a world where perception can be tailored and facts fabricated, is there any fixed identity left to protect? Or are we all one scandal away from becoming someone else entirely? A Quiet Reclamation Srivastava isn’t asking for vengeance. He’s asking for space—to be heard, to be believed, to exist outside the story created for him. “I want my life back,” he says. But also: “I want people… who have faced very similar issues to have faith.” This isn’t a man chasing vindication. It’s someone trying to breathe again, to trust again, to be allowed back into the rooms he once belonged in. Targeted gives him that room. And in doing so, it delivers something rare: a podcast that’s not just about information, but about identity. Gaurav Srivastava’s story is a cautionary tale for anyone who still believes that truth will out in the age of AI and anonymous edits. Style and Survival in the Age of Storytelling There is a certain irony in how this episode mirrors the way we consume fashion—fast, superficial, easily manipulated by influencers and branding. The modern reputation is styled, not substantiated. And if you don’t control the styling, someone else will do it for you. Gaurav Srivastava’s experience may be uniquely devastating, but it is not uniquely possible. What happened to him—via Wikipedia, media echo chambers, AI voice forgeries, and reputational warfare—can happen to anyone. In an age where identity is curated like a feed, and justice is a headline away from collapse, Targeted asks us to pause. To look beyond the cut, the colour, and the quote. To ask who stitched this story together—and whether we really want to wear it. Because in the end, style fades. But the truth? If we let it, it might just make a comeback. 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Apr 24, 2025