‘Whack-a-mole’ tactic fuels Pak-backed multi-layered disinformation campaign

New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) Amid the ongoing protests, investigators have found that certain elements backed by Pakistan launched a multi-layered digital warfare campaign targeting India. They are examining how posts published by these handles gained traction and went viral, reaching a large audience across digital platforms.

The campaign was allegedly aimed at undermining the Indian government and discrediting its handling of the protests. While the investigation has uncovered the circulation of fake narratives, investigators are also examining the locations where these posts received the highest levels of engagement.

An official said these posts were targeted mostly in states where a non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is in power. Posts were circulated most in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

“These elements were selective while choosing the location where they wanted these fake posts to go viral,” the official said.

The operation began with the creation of a primary proxy account, followed by scores of additional proxy accounts. These accounts amplified the content posted by the primary account through coordinated activity, including artificial interactions among themselves, while keeping the focus on the original post. This created the impression that the content was gaining significant traction and attracting widespread engagement.

Officials say that after watching the engagement, other genuine profiles would join the conversation. This only increased the reach of such fake content being posted online. The genuine handles would in turn share these posts, and this added to the further reach of such content.

Another official said that these elements ensured that the issue does not remain just on social media platforms.

“They wanted to ensure that such content is distributed and shared on other platforms as well. They had created channels on both WhatsApp and Telegram where the same content would be posted and shared,” the official said.

First, the fake post would be created, following which the layering process would take place. The fake narrative, through the layering process, would be moved and reposted across multiple digital ecosystems. This leads to the claim being rinsed because people stop looking at where the story originated and focus on who shared it.

Since the content is being shared now by everyday citizens, trusted groups, and family members in private chats, it gets integrated into reality, and debunking it becomes a major challenge, officials say.

Investigations have also found that these Pakistan-backed elements used both informational smurfing and the whack-a-mole effect to push such content.

Informational smurfing involves a process where a narrative is dropped into scores of small and fragmented chat groups simultaneously so that the content is seen everywhere and all the time.

The whack-a-mole effect is a situation where as soon as one lie is suppressed, another pops up somewhere else. This makes it hard to eliminate. For this, WhatsApp and Telegram were chosen to amplify the fake narrative after the same did its rounds on social media. WhatsApp and Telegram are encrypted, and fact-checkers and platform moderators cannot easily see or take down the content. Due to this, the fake news continues to circulate in a loop and ends up creating a false sense of authority as everyone is forwarding it.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that the problem is massive and these Pakistani elements keep finding new ways to amplify fake narratives and content.

The law enforcement agencies are able to make formal takedown requests when such content is posted on social media. However, the challenge is massive when such content is circulated and forwarded multiple times on encrypted channels, the official said.

–IANS

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