Pakistan Pushes Cyber Warfare Against India on Twitter

Pakistan is aggressively pushing sinister propaganda against India via ramping up cyber warfare on Twitter, a new report said on Monday.

According to tech startup Logically AI, unscrupulous agents from Pakistan spread misinformation via #GobackModi campaign on Twitter during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Chennai.

Using network analysis, the research team discovered there was a significant level of activity from Pakistan related to #GoBackModi.

This involved Pakistan-based accounts posing as Tamil and Marathi accounts, and accounts along with bots engaging with authentic tweets to boost their engagement.

"Social media has become a hotbed for spreading 'fake news'. These accounts are generally operated through fake profiles created cross borders. The primary objective to spread misinformation and disinformation through these accounts is to disturb the civil discourse," Lyric Jain, Founder of Logically, said in a statement.

"This is the second instance where Logically was able to discover fake accounts that trace back to Pakistani IP addresses. Prior to this, during general elections, we had busted fake news and accounts which also originated from China and Pakistan," Jain added.

According to Twitter, the company is committed to the principles of openness, transparency and impartiality and no one is above its rules.

"We enforce our policies judiciously and impartially for all individuals — regardless of their political beliefs, professional position or background," a Twitter spokesperson told IANS.

Giving a befitting reply to Pakistan's cyber warfare, Netizens in India trended "DontGoBackModi" as the Prime Minister met Jinping in Tamil Nadu's Mamallapuram.

Earlier in August, Pakistan admitted that 333 Twitter accounts were suspended for writing on Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.

The handles were suspended by Twitter following the objection by the Indian authorities in view of false and provocative content being disseminated through the accounts.

Pakistan's Dawn reported in August that some 200 Twitter accounts were suspended for apparently posting about Kashmir. The claim came from journalists, activists, government officials and fans of the military tweeting.

After Pakistan's request, Twitter agreed to alert the Pakistan government before it suspends official accounts.

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After abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution from Jammu & Kashmir on August 5, The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), public relations wing of the Pakistan armed forces, began spreading fake news related to Kashmir and sow seeds of discord among security forces and fuel hatred among citizens in India. (IANS)