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INTERNAL SECURITY

Social Media and Fake News

by LotusArise October 20, 2022 0 Comments

Social media platforms have effectively supplanted traditional information networks in India. The
relationship between online content, traditional media and political networks is so strong that the
messages are propagated effectively to even those who are not yet online.
Many times, false information, intentionally or unintentionally, gets transferred through social
media that manipulates the beliefs of the people towards a particular community, the
government or some ongoing issue.
Public opinion is the currency of democracy, and, therefore, vested interests cannot be allowed
to hijack public opinion through the organised dissemination of misinformation.
“The internet is the largest experiment involving anarchy in history. (.. .) It is a source for
tremendous good and potentially dreadful evil, and we are only just beginning to witness its
impact on the world stage.” — Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google and Jared Cohen,
Director, Google Ideas

Social Media
Social media primarily includes internet or cellular phone based applications and tools to share
information among people. Social media includes popular networking websites, like Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram etc. It involves blogging and forums and any aspect of an interactive presence
which allows individuals the ability to engage in conversations with one another, often as a
discussion over a particular blog post, news article, or event.

Social Media Reach

There were 658.0 million internet users in India in January 2022. With the ease of internet access,
the number of active social media users in India stood at 330 million in 2019 and it is expected to
reach 448 million by 2023. India has world’s largest number of Facebook Users with over 294
million users, overtaking US. The report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India says, “77%
of urban internet users and 92% of rural users “consider mobile as the primary device for
accessing the Internet, largely driven by availability and affordability of smart phones”. With over
658 million internet users, India is the second largest online market, ranked only behind China.
Thus, the availability of low cost mobile devices has become a game changer.

Negative Impact of Social Media

In the times of social media, where information is conveyed instantly, misinformation and rumour
spread with same speed and ease. This could be dangerous to the security paradigm where
government agencies have to counter multitude of factors working simultaneously.
The sheer scale as well as complexities that arise owing to negative implications of the social media
vis-a-vis security paradigm could be elaborated as below:
Spreading Misinformation and Rumours
Mobile and social network interface was used to send offensive clips and hate messages
that triggered panic and mass exodus of north east Indians from large parts of India in the
aftermath of the ethnic clashes in Assam in 2012.
Inciting Communal and Sectarian Violence
In September 2013, a morphed video on YouTube was used to fan communal riots in
Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh and led to mass panic. This incident snowballed into a
cyber-security challenge and exposed a facet of the medium that could be exploited by
anti-national elements and required immediate attention.
Radicalisation of Youth
The root of radicalisation lies in the socio-political alienation of a vulnerable individual and
according to available literature goes through four stages: what is happening is not right; it
is not fair; laying the blame on or demonising the perceived enemy. Online campaigns to
radicalise youth are used by various terrorist organisations such as ISIS, the Hizbul
Mujahideen, Al-Qaeda etc. The ISIS group is known to operate 96,000 Twitter handles,
each spewing out 2,000 venomous tweets daily. Each minute 300 hours of content is
added on to YouTube, which includes terror propaganda and radical Islam with an aim to
recruit global Muslim youth (As per 2015 data).
The current trends in Jammu and Kashmir reveal that a religious Islamic identity is trying to
overtake a political movement. This was recently manifested in 11 unmasked Kashmiri youth
armed with assault rifles uploading their photographs in IS style on Facebook. The
government lack the technological capability to track, monitor or react to this avalanche of
bytes in the virtual world which are radicalising youth in the name of Islam or a romantic
Caliphate concept of yesteryears.
Used by Terrorist Organisation to Recruit
Social Media is being used by terrorist organisations to hunt potential recruits and lure
them into their organisation. ISIS has devised a methodology to attract and recruit
 members for terrorist operations through online platforms like, Facebook, YouTube etc. It
has caused people from various countries to join the ISIS or carry out “lonewolfs” attack in
their respective countries.
Coordinate Activities against the State
Communication is the lynch-pin of coordinating any activity. Social Media platforms like
Facebook and communication apps like WhatsApp could be used to plan, coordinate and
execute activities against the state. In August 2017, large number of people were mobilised
to gather in north Indian cities of Panchkula and Chandigarh, in aftermath of a religious
guru’s conviction in a rape case, the mob coordinated activities of vandalism and arson
against the state. Similar, social media tools are used by terrorist and extremist
organisations to coordinate activities against the state.
False Opinion Building
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
The quote
that is often, and ironically, wrongly attributed to Joseph Goebbels the propaganda
minister during Nazi Germany – perhaps best sums up what’s happening across the world.
Repetitive tweets and posts on a particular topic, or hashtag, are aimed at trending the
related subject to the extent that it becomes a popular, believable narrative. Social Media
platforms are used to create false opinion. The world has seen most prominent example of
this phenomena in US presidential elections 2016. In India also, fabricated and manipulated
content are gaining steam, leading to the possibility of potential violence in the society.
Propaganda Impacting International Perception
Pakistan in UN General Assembly 2017 used fake image of a young girl as a victim to pellet
gun attack by Indian security forces in Kashmir. Later on it was found that the image was of
a Palestine citizen, this is not a standalone incident, hostile countries use propaganda to
show the target country in bad light impacting international perception.
Creating False Insecurities among Citizens
A rumour spread by self-styled cow protectors in October 2015 provoked an entire village
to attack a Muslim family in Dadari (Noida). The mob lynched 52 year-old head of the
house Mohammed Akhlaq allegedly for consuming beef. WhatsApp played a role in
spreading this rumour among the villagers.
Such incidents give rise to insecurities among citizens, that they could be lynched on the
basis of mere suspicion.
Fake News in Post-Truth Times
We are living in post-truth times. In the post-truth discourse, experts are dismissed, alternative
facts are (sometimes flagrantly) offered, and public figures can offer opinions on pretty much
anything. And thanks to social media, pretty much anyone can be a public figure. Fake news refers
to the fictitious articles/media that are deliberately circulated in the internet with the aim of
deceiving the readers. The news creator earns a profit with every user clicking to view it. The
visitors are given an impression that they are visiting a trusted source of news and in this way it is
made viral over the internet to increase its dissemination. Other than having an impact on the news
readers, it also has an impact on the election process, pushing the pattern to shift towards one side
.
Implications on India
With the concept of fake news becoming a global phenomenon with the growth of social media,
India has also not stayed far behind in this regard. According to a study of online news
consumers in 2015, social media has been one of the main sources of their online news. One of
the strongest evidences of fake news came up during the time of the demonetization drive.
Instances of Fake News in India

The concept of fitting a GPS chip on the Rs 2000 notes made big news until the RBI clarified
officially through its press release that no such advanced features were used in the new
currency notes.
Another source identified is the WhatsApp wherein a video from Bangladesh was being
circulated by radical right wing groups after a minor communal disturbance that occurred in
Bihar. The main cause of such news in India is that the legal news organizations too are
unaware of the manner of verification and reporting they are supposed to undertake especially
with respect to the news in circulation in social media. They are so highly concerned with
increasing their own ‘trending’ contents ahead of the others that they let the news go
unverified.
The only way to combat this issue is to increase the commitment of the journalists through proper
education and values. One of the most innovative ways suggested is to challenge the news spread
through social media through an equal over flooding of true news through conventional media. This
will be possible only if the journalists stick to their practices and avoid faking of news.
Use of Social Media by Non-State Actors
The decentralized and egalitarian nature of internet and social media has empowered not only the
netizens but enabled anti-social elements to undertake subversive activities. Cyber incidents have
witnessed a steep rise with the increasing penetration of technology. Non-state actors have been
using social media and internet to spread rumours, fake news, propaganda, raise funds, indoctrinate
and recruit members. End to end encryption technologies have provided enhanced secrecy and
made real time interception by security agencies very difficult.
ISIS: ‘Virtual’ Threats to India
India has trouble on its hands. Media reports of NIA investigations of ISIS India sympathisers
reveal that almost two-third Indians arrested detained or counselled for links to ISIS were from
middle and upper middle class families holding graduate degrees and or completing their
masters. In contrast, an overwhelming majority of terrorism suspects interrogated, before the
rise of ISIS, were from poor families. According to the agencies a possible class shift among
those attracted to violent groups in India has taken place. Educated, middle-class youngsters in
India appear to be more drawn to ISIS, moved as much by the terrorist group’s brand of global
jihad as by perceived injustices against Muslims at home. Once again social media propaganda
has been identified as the medium driving this online radicalisation and puts emphasis on
controlling the narrative on the perception wars of communities on sensitive issues. The data
suggests a direct correlation between key events with religious undertones in India and spikes
in internet traffic from the country to jihadist websites over the past two years. It is no wonder
that the propaganda video released by the ISIS regarding targeting of Indian Muslims, plays on
perceived insecurities of minority communities.
Methods used by ISIS to Recruit in India

ISIS has mastered the art of selling terror and ideology instantly. Videos use gaming language,
graphics, and effects coupled with trending hash tags, to target their global audience-
disenchanted youth who are spoiling for a fight. ISIS speaks to them in a language they
understand. This explains the shift in the target audience ISIS seems to be attracting in India. A
toxic mix of ideology and technology makes for a potent challenge.
Militancy in J&K

Overt war of ideas has serious consequences for India’s national security as seen in the
resurgence of unrest in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in July 2016. The case in point is the
 mass violence that was triggered in the aftermath of the killing of Burhan Wani, the Hizbul
Mujahideen commander who was infamous as the “Facebook Militant” in mass media.

National Social Media Policy

The government is finalising a policy which is aimed at keeping a hawk’s eye vigil on the social
media to check if it is being “misused” to conspire against India and spread anti-national
propaganda. At present, there is only a set of “do’s and don’ts” for the social media which needs
to be graduated to a full-fledged guidelines that should be adopted on such a network.
The move assumes significance as there have been instances where terrorists were found to be
using social media to conspire against the country or to propagate anti-India materials. There
have also been instances where rumours spread on the social media had resulted in violence
and tense situation in different parts of the country.
The misuse of social media is more challenging especially with reference to the situation in
Jammu and Kashmir. The stake holders are discussing ways to finalise a policy to help
intelligence agencies and security forces effectively deal with any propaganda. The
infrastructure requirements like manpower and technological needs for monitoring of the social
media are also being finalised.

De-Radicalization Strategy
Faced with the challenges of both home-grown extremism and the global Islamic State (IS)
threat, Maharashtra Anti- Terror Squad (ATS) has devised a strategy to de-radicalise youth by
gaining trust of parents. Police came across the different levels of radicalisation by interacting
with youths and found that recruiting online is four times faster than physical meetings and still
effective. The online process is 100 per cent safe for the handler as he never shows his face to
the recruits.
Under the new policy, many youths have been deradicalised with the help of community
leaders and NGOs and brought to mainstream. The strategy followed could be elaborated as:
Formation of “extremism counselling hotline” similar to the one set up in Austria, which will
enable parents, teachers and friends of “vulnerable and indoctrinated” youth to seek
professional help for their “deradicalization”.
Apart from this, the Indian security establishment is also looking at US’ counter
radicalization program focused on community outreach and UK ’s Prevent and Channel
 programmes.
Government should reach out to the minority community and win their hearts at all costs.
The approach mustfollow a carefully crafted deradicalisation plan which includes:
awareness of the contagion, detection of potential and existing recruits and finally
remedial action.
There is also a need to focus on potential target groups and take steps to improve the
conditions of disadvantaged minority groups so that they are not influenced by
messages of radicalisation.
Big data analytics can be used to discern the level of radicalisation of potential recruits,
to help unravel the roots of radicalisation.
Religious leaders should be encouraged to counsel against radicalization.

Use of Social Media by Law Enforcement Agencies

Law enforcement agencies across the globe are using a superior form of “Open source
Intelligence” to engage, collate, analyse and predict, and share intelligence using data gleaned
from social media networks, also known as Social media intelligence. This analysis uses social
media data, that is, all the user generated data on social media platforms with their metadata
(which includes information of the user, location, time and date details of post, number of
people who viewed and shared the post, etc.) to identify people, networks, patterns and events
that contribute to actionable intelligence.
Indian experience in using content from open social media platforms for intelligence gathering
has been limited to a few pilot projects. Indian police personnel do believe in the usefulness of
social media in providing actionable intelligence in two prominent aspects rumours that
manifest in violent public upsurge and simmering public opinion about various issues. There
was broad agreement on the usefulness of the medium’s speed of delivering real time data for
predicting protests and its reach in emergencies like riots, terror strikes or countering of hateful
propaganda which is inciting violence.

Social Media Labs Project

In 2013, the Maharashtra Police took the first initiative in this direction by setting up a
pilot project to track activity on social media to gauge public moods on issues and
‘step-up its preparedness’ in anticipating and handling sudden flare ups. The app
 tracks and provides sentiment analysis, identifies behavioural patterns, influencers and
advocates, tracks increase in chatter and generates alerts in real time on social media
platforms.

Measures to Tackle Threats from Social Media

Institutionalise blueprint for a National Social Media Policy: The Indian establishment needs to
recognise the medium and grant it a legal status if it needs to deal with the multitude of
challenges that rise out of it effectively.
Implement and Institutionalise the Framework of Guidelines on Social Media Engagement:
Department of Electronics and Information Technology’s Framework of guidelines has laid down
elaborate guiding principles for engagement of social media by government agencies.
Create Awareness on Challenges posed by Social Media: There exists a huge lack of
awareness amongst citizens, law enforcement agencies and higher levels on the potential of
misuse of social media.
Create Organisational Ecosystems, Circumvent Hierarchies, Encourage Outreach: Change
the approach to the use of social media by empowering personnel to engage proactively, and
sustain channels of communication rather than looking at it from purely an observer/monitoring
perspective.
Empower Agencies, Build Talent, and Use Specialists: Decisions on dedicated teams, with
talent specific to technical, legal and soft skill capabilities required for social media
engagement. Inclusion of lateral entry specialists to handle specific requirements like 24×7
tech-support/ or soft skills, etc., need to be debated. Practical solutions need to be pushed in
line with the larger debate on police reforms.
Replicate“Social Media Labs” acrossthe Country: Use the success and work on the limitations
of the social media labs experiment for the future.
Demarcate Budgets, Standardise tools and Platforms: There is a need to nationalise the
efforts of leveraging social media and that will require demarcation of specific budgets,
standardisation of tools and technology platforms.
Expand and Define Scope of Public-Private Partnerships: There exists a huge talent pool in
the private sector that the government can usefully leverage.
Frameworks must build capacity at local level and share information at federal level: The
framework to deal with social media challenges requires building capacity at local levels, since
issues begin at this stage.
Outline standard operating procedures: This includes a specific list of do’s and don’ts
regarding the use of social media data for generating actionable intelligence.
To be set in motion in case of a cyber-social media attack: These operating procedures must
define rules of engagement for all stakeholders involved in the situation. Provisions of 24×7
complaint review mechanisms.
For exchange of information with intermediaries/ service providers of social media: Since
most social media content providers have headquarters outside India standard protocols for
exchange of information with social media service providers must be developed to ensure no
loss of time due to communication gaps.
Re-haul legal regime: focus on loop holes and censorship and privacy issues: It is imperative
that the medium be given a legal status and thought be put into a new legal regime which can
manage the gamut of challenges posed by social media.
Continue awareness campaigns, build centres of excellence, create and exchange best
practices: Thought needs to put into revised curriculum in universities to produce experts who
will fulfil these demands. There is also a need to build a knowledge base of best practices and
share them internally as ‘lessons learnt’ for institutional memory.
The Social Media Communication Hub: It is a proposed project which seeks to monitor social
media platforms and analyze the data to provide feedback to the government. The initiative is
being implemented by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It seeks to collect, compile
and analyze news trending in districts across India. The project would help the government
gather information on the progress of its flagship welfare schemes. The project would help to
prevent the spread of rumours or fake news which could lead to adverse situations.
The project envisages the following:
(a) A social media analytical tool
(b) A private data centre.
(c) Preparation of analytics reports
(d) Pre-and post-establishment support (human resource)
(e) Predictive Analysis