Pakistan fake machine peddling industry is on an overdrive since the time India abrogated Article 370 granting special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Various social media accounts created by people in Pakistan have been pushing their agenda by spreading ‘fake news’ to shame India globally.
Brijesh Singh, Special Inspector General (SIG) of Police, Maharashtra Cyber on Saturday said while Pakistan based social media accounts are trying to discredit India, it is the responsibility of the people here to verify the information before disseminating it.
According to a news report, Singh asserted that many fake accounts created with Indian names belonging to Pakistan are working overtime to spread provocative content across social media. These accounts are especially targetting the Indian Armed Forces to defame them.
“Several fake accounts with Indian names are being made on social media. These accounts are posting inflammatory content. It was observed that such things are being done from the Pakistan side, a campaign is being undertaken,” Singh added.
He further added that fake videos and photos are being circulated and used out of context to propagate that India is executing a genocide of its people in the valley. Ironically, the verified (blue tick) accounts of Pakistan are also sharing such the unverified reports.
Singh shared an instance of fake news wherein a military colonel’s picture was shared across social media platforms and people were made to believe that he would be quitting the Army.
“People create such fake accounts in a systematic manner and by adopting a particular kind of language. People should be aware of such accounts and they should visit the profile and check it thoroughly. These accounts also post several screenshots which cannot be actually verified,” asserted Singh.
Singh appealed to people to verify the information before sharing it online especially the content that targets India, Army or Police negatively as such attempts could be manufactured endeavors to tarnish the country or national institutions.
Singh further added that some accounts have resorted to passing on information dating back two to three years as current news. Upon investigating, such accounts were found to be actively posting fake news on social media.
“Certain accounts share outdated images or videos so verifying such content is difficult but what general public can do is, they can simply put that image on Google search engine and it will show how old that image is, in case the content is outdated,” Singh added.
