On August 30, Facebook suspended hundreds of accounts from its platforms for what it termed “inauthentic behaviour”, but what can largely be called the job of a dedicated Pakistani social media module focussed religiously to doll out pro-Pakistan and anti-India propaganda. The said module made extensive use of ‘mass reporting’ as a tool to stifle the voices of Pakistani critics, both domestically and abroad. The Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), in its report about the said module, revealed that they were observed to be anti-Ahmadi (a persecuted Islamic sect in Pakistan), and also hateful towards the ruling BJP in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi being an obvious target.
According to India Today, Facebook suspended 103 pages, 78 groups, 453 Facebook accounts, and 107 Instagram accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Facebook attributed this network to individuals in Pakistan. “We found this network as part of our internal investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behaviour in the region.” In its takedown report, Facebook said, “In August, we removed three networks of accounts, pages and groups. Two of them — from Russia and the US — targeted people outside of their country, and another from Pakistan focused on both domestic audiences in Pakistan and also in India. We have shared information about our findings with law enforcement, policymakers and industry partners.”
The said group of fake accounts, which operated out of Pakistan and churned out anti-India propaganda in abundance, did so not just on Facebook via an extensive network of groups and pages, but also on Instagram, which is also owned by the social media behemoth. The network mass reported any individual account/page/group, be it in Pakistan, India or other countries, if the account posted anti-Pakistan content, or did so much as critique the Pakistani Army. The network also mass-reported accounts which they thought to be ‘critical’ of Islam.
The network, which now stands busted, made use of “Auto Reporter,” a Chrome extension to automate reporting, thus making their task easier. “The main theme across the pages and groups was Pakistani nationalist content; content praising the military and ISI, and supporting Pakistan in its rivalry with India,” said the SIO report. It also revealed that the network was furthering pro-Khalistan content.
This is not the first time that a social media module of Pakistan, potentially backed by the ISI and military establishment of the terror state has been busted. In April 2019, Facebook had suspended a network of accounts linked to the Pakistani military establishment. According to Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), that specific network “represented a significant influence operation, apparently aimed at boosting support for the army inside Pakistan and boosting support for Pakistan abroad.”