New Delhi: India is not just witnessing country’s biggest political battle but also staring at propaganda on social media, election manipulation, the polarisation of public sentiment — all through cyber politics. 

According to a report by a Delhi-based security firm, cyber troops and suspected bots/trolls have already been engaged in influencing and manipulating the upcoming general elections. Surprisingly there are foreign forces that are trying to influence the grand Indian election too.

A report made by Delhi-based firm Innefu using its social media monitoring tool, Prophecy InnSight, shows the ruling party BJP and the Congress in opposition as the top contenders for the election as they are the most trending organisations, with BJP taking the lead.

Interestingly, a lot of foreign countries are taking an interest in the Indian election. The report shows how foreign countries were recorded to be one of the most active locations propagating the anti-Modi campaign on social media.

A lot of negative stories, fake information has been circulated by Pakistan in connection with the election in India. Pakistan’s political leaders, soldiers and other influencers are spreading the negative chatter. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was caught spreading a negative narrative related to Indian election and the government.

Even Radio Pakistan, the national broadcaster of that country, recorded posting the computational propaganda to manoeuvre the Indian election.


 
Other countries taking keep interest in the Indian election include the UK, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada, France and even China. These have been recorded as the most active locations from where the articles on social media are being posted.


 
Further, during the election season, the anti-national and anti-government propaganda of Khalistan and ‘Free Kashmir’ is peddled on social media. These messages are being circulated as part of organised propaganda to manipulate the election. The pro-Khalistan and radical Kashmiri separatists were recorded propagating anti-Modi and anti-government narrative vehemently across the social media platforms.

The report mentions that Twitter is the most actively used platform for the campaign to orchestrate the narrative of elections. The data captured for a month — February 27 to March 27 — shows deployment of cyber troops on Twitter. “A stark increase in the number of Twitter users was recorded with 46,514 unique Twitter accounts generated in the month of March 2019 alone. Less than a month away from elections, the expansion indicates potential swaying of voters on social media," said the report.

Thousands of bot profiles (including the dedicated Trolls) were suspected by the system which were trying to manipulate social media. The system categorises the bots and trolls on the different parameters based on the tweet frequency and the content sharing frequency.  

During the analysis, Facebook was recorded as a tool to manipulate and control public opinion and discussion by spreading misinformation and controversial propaganda against the government.
 
This report is prepared by Innefu Labs using a social media monitoring tool,  Prophecy InnSight. The report is based on data available from Open Source & social media channels.