A network of fake social media profiles of people claiming to be Sikhs, and promoting divisive narratives, has been exposed, reports BBC.
The network used so-called “sock puppet” accounts, which are fake ones controlled by real people posing as independent individuals, rather than automated “bots”.
The fake profiles used Sikh names and claimed to be “Real Sikhs”. They used the hashtags #RealSikh to endorse, and #FakeSikh to discredit, different political viewpoints.
A coordinated network of fake accounts posed as Sikh personas to promote the Indian Govt, nationalism & label Sikh activists as terrorists.
— Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) November 24, 2021
They claimed they were #RealSikhs, but were far from it. News on our investigation: https://t.co/iJNDWmFZgq Here is an explainer thread👇 pic.twitter.com/DZfe7De5ZK
The report, from non-profit organisation the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), found many of the accounts in the network used the same fake profiles across several platforms. These accounts shared the same names, profile pictures, and cover photos, and published identical posts.
According to the report, the accounts sought to label any notion of Sikh independence as extremist, and delegitimise the farmers’ protests, claiming they had been hijacked by “Khalistani terrorists”.
Benjamin Strick who worked on the story wrote a detailed thread on Twitter sharing the details of his findings.
“We can glean some obvious details from the content the accounts post. Here is some of the Facebook activity we looked at. It shows a strong focus on countering Sikh independence. Note the prominence of tags such as #PakistanBehindKhalistan,” tweeted, Benjamin.
So WHAT was their aim?
— Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) November 24, 2021
We can glean some obvious details from the content the accounts post. Here is some of the Facebook activity we looked at. It shows a strong focus on countering Sikh independence. Note the prominence of tags such as #PakistanBehindKhalistan pic.twitter.com/kSHu563reY
“There was also a common theme throughout the network of fake personas to retweet or tweet about the Indian Armed Forces and Indian Army content. This content was unique as it was not related to Sikh independence much like the other content,” shared Bejamin on Twitter.
There was also a common theme throughout the network of fake personas to retweet or tweet about the Indian Armed Forces and Indian Army content.
— Benjamin Strick (@BenDoBrown) November 24, 2021
This content was unique as it was not related to Sikh independence much like the other content. pic.twitter.com/sK2XDMzKSY