Mediaeye News
New Delhi: Intelligence agencies have issued an alert over a possible large-scale disinformation (deepfake) campaign seeking to exploit the ongoing Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)-led protests over the NEET-UG paper leak.
According to the agencies, hostile elements may use the volatile situation to circulate fake and misleading content on social media in an attempt to provoke violence and deepen public unrest. The warning follows the detection of several fabricated and misleading videos being widely shared online.
Some videos circulating online depict uniformed personnel making political remarks, but intelligence agencies suspect they are misleading or fabricated.
An Intelligence Bureau official said the circulation of such videos was on expected lines, with anti-social elements attempting to exploit the situation and incite violence. The official added that security agencies have begun identifying and flagging manipulated posts and fabricated content circulating on social media.
Another official said that swift action against such posts is the need of the hour. “Such content cannot be allowed to circulate for long. The longer it remains on social media, the greater the damage it can cause,” the official said.
Officials also say that there are plenty of actors who are trying to take advantage of the situation. “Their objective is to flood social media with deepfake and AI-generated videos falsely presented as messages from police or Army personnel,” the official said.
The broader objective, according to intelligence agencies, is to erode public confidence in key state institutions through a sustained disinformation campaign. Officials warned that the Indian Army is likely to be the primary target of such efforts.
The citizens have immense trust in the military forces, and hence they would be the target of such a disinformation campaign, officials warn.
The same pattern was witnessed when India carried out Operation Sindoor to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack last year. Many social media handles backed by the Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, ran propaganda campaigns against the Indian armed forces.
Fake videos suggested that the Indian armed forces suffered huge losses during the operation. These handles intended to demoralise the armed forces and ensure that the people cast aspersions on the military.
The Indian security agencies do not rule out the role of foreign actors in this propaganda and disinformation campaign. There have always been attempts to undermine and defame the Indian Army.
An official said the country’s armed forces enjoy the trust and confidence of people across India, making them a prime target for disinformation campaigns. According to the official, repeated attempts have been made over the past several months to erode that trust. With the protests continuing, security agencies fear such campaigns could intensify in the coming days.
So far, since the start of the protests, officials have identified nearly 20 such video posts showing army personnel criticising the government on the issue. These videos are under the investigation of the security agencies now.
Investigators are struggling to identify those featured in the videos as they contain no name tags, insignia or other identifying features that could help establish their identity.
Officials warned that more attempts to circulate such fabricated videos are expected in the coming days. They have also noticed a pattern in which misleading videos are uploaded, widely shared for a few hours, and then swiftly deleted.
“This appears to be a deliberate tactic to make tracing the source more difficult. But even if such videos remain online for only a few hours, they can spread false narratives and cause significant damage,” an official said.
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–IANS
