Pakistan's dirty tricks IT-cell's cover blown: India upholds Stanford report; shames Imran

India on Tuesday hit out at Pakistan for propagating fake news through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations shared a report by Stanford Internet Observatory on "motivated false propaganda" from Pakistan and said that "the truth is out for the world to see."

'Malicious propaganda, misinformation, infodemic, fake news'

The report by Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) exposes a network of Pakistan-based Facebook and Instagram accounts that leveraged mass reporting to silence critics of Islamabad.

"On August 31, 2020, Facebook suspended 103 Pages, 78 Groups, 453 Facebook accounts, and 107 Instagram accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour. As it notes in its takedown report, Facebook attributed this network to individuals in Pakistan," the SIO report said.

'Pak netas work directly with prominent social media trolls'

Facebook shared a portion of this network on August 28 with the SIO which then conducted its own investigation and brought out its report. The report highlights how a network of social media accounts originating in Pakistan posted Pakistani nationalist messages and criticized the Indian government. It also highlighted how the mass reporting networks operated, with Group and Page administrators mobilizing social media users to report accounts that were critical of Islam or the Pakistani military/government.

READ | Tinder outage in Pakistan breaks Internet; citizens ask 'Wait, we had Tinder in Pakistan?'

"Many Pages and Groups posted Pakistani nationalist content, praising the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency) and ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Posts also criticized India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, often mocking Modi’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic," the report highlighted.

READ | Pakistan team management asks senior players to stop giving advice to Babar Azam: Reports

The further said this is not the first public suspension of coordinated activity in Pakistan and that in April 2019 Facebook suspended a network of accounts linked to the InterServices Public Relations wing of the Pakistani military. According to Digital Forensic Research Lab, that network "represented a significant influence operation, apparently aimed at boosting support for the army inside Pakistan and boosting support for Pakistan abroad."

READ | England vs Pakistan 3rd T20I live streaming in India, preview, pitch and weather report

Additionally, reporting shows that Pakistani politicians work directly with prominent social media trolls to get pro-Pakistan hashtags trending on Twitter. The SIO report also noted "the repeated invoking of duty towards religion and nation for mass reporting"

READ | Pakistan registers 300 more coronavirus cases, tally reaches 296,149

(With agency inputs)