Taking action against fake news and propaganda, social media giant Facebook has pulled down 103 pages, groups and accounts linked to ISPR of the Pakistani military. Thousands of accounts, pages and group on social media are active and are backed by the Pakistan army.
New Delhi: Taking action against fake news and propaganda, social media giant Facebook has pulled down 103 pages, groups and accounts linked to ISPR (Inter-Service Public Relations) of the Pakistani military but experts in India claim it is just a tip of the iceberg.
Thousands of accounts, pages and group on social media are active and are backed by the Pakistan army. These pages are involved in peddling fake news, targeting ideas and circulating negative propaganda.
According to sources in Indian security agencies, Pakistan’s ISI has hired a pool of techies and hackers who have set-up facilities to wage information warfare by circulating fake information and even snoop on Indian defence officers to syphon data by honeytrapping. Thousands of fake profiles are still active on Facebook and Twitter, and are constantly spreading anti-India content. These profiles will also be actively used during the upcoming elections to influence voters.
An increase in these activities was witnessed during the Pulwama attack and Balakot air strike after which the tension between India and Pakistan was at an all-time high. Pakistani networks were used to peddle lies against the Indian forces, strike at Balakot and details of Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman who was captured by Pakistan army and then released. Pakistani influencers flooded social media with lies and Pakistan’s propaganda.
A senior officer told MyNation, high tech facilities are made in Pakistan, with a clear mandate to target Indian security officers on social media websites. Their second objective is to show India in bad light at global platforms so they peddle fake news like atrocity by Indian forces in the Kashmir valley, communal messages and other negative stories about the forces. Pakistani influencers have gone to such an extent that they have started taking interest in the development of north-eastern and southern states of India.
Cybercrime expert Tarun Vig said that Pakistan carried out extensive information propaganda on social media in the ongoing escalation. They are carrying out a two-pronged approach - one to show them in a better light and second to further radicalise our youth.
“Our analysis showed how fake photographs were widely promoted through bots. The same bots have also been propagating fake information on attacks on Kashmiri students in different parts of the country. These bots can easily be identified based on the fact that they are promoting the same content in a duration of few minutes of each other without actually retweeting the content,” explained Vig, co-founder of Innefu Labs, a Delhi-based IT security solutions company.
Facebook on Monday had removed 103 pages, groups and accounts for engaging in coordinated, unauthentic behaviour on Facebook and Instagram as part of a network that originated in Pakistan.
Even the tech giant admitted that these pages were backed by Pakistani army. “Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found that it was linked to employees of the ISPR (Inter-Service Public Relations) of the Pakistani military,” the statement by Facebook said.
“Pakistan is definitely trying to influence the Indian election by circulating fake news and propaganda videos specially considering the timing as it is at the time when the tension between the two countries is at its peak,” said Jiten Jain, cyber security expert.
A senior central agency officer said that Pakistan is interested in anything that India does. They are spending huge money to extract as much information from India and malign its image. “Pakistan in past have made several attempts to steal data and listen to officers telephone conversation through spying software installed in their phone trough backdoor,” said the officers.
Pakistan’s ISI is funding such establishments to set up a team of hackers dedicatedly working on mobile app development, creating fake profiles on social media, creating fake videos, tracking Indian officers on Facebook and maintaining their database.
Pakistani spies have created several fake profiles of girls and lured Indian army men by laying honeytraps on Facebook.
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