Fake Twitter handles made by Pakistan blocked

After failing to garner support from the international community against the decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan is now resorting to underhand cyber tactics to peddle false propaganda against India.

As per Intelligence sources, as many as 200 handlers have been enlisted by the Pakistan army to make fake or 'sleeper' Twitter accounts in the names of top Indian Army officers, including Army chief, General Bipin Rawat, to malign India.

The nefarious plot was discovered by the Army, and on the Centre's request, the micro-blogging site shut down 50 such fake accounts in made to impersonate senior officers such as Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh, Lt Gen Devraj Ambu, and retired Central Army Commander Lt Gen Balwant. Other social media platforms are expected to follow suit and more than 1,000 fake accounts will be shut down in the coming days, sources told Zee Media.

As per the Army's rules, serving officers cannot identify themselves in uniform on social media. All these accounts had profile pictures of the officers in uniform — a dead giveaway that they were fake.

Many of them were created four to five years ago and lay dormant until the last couple of months, said an Army source.

After the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, most tweets from these handles were about Kashmir and had old videos from other parts of the world.

They alleged human rights violations or military atrocities to create a false narrative.

The Pakistan army has been using these fake accounts to spread false propaganda about what's happening in Kashmir, across the world and especially in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) about the situation in the newly-established union territory. Recently some fake videos shot by the Pakistan army in PoK were exposed, which they claimed was evidence of atrocities committed by the Army in Jammu and Kashmir.

The government has now set up a monitoring committee to identify any such fake handles and platforms on social media, including YouTube videos.

—Zee Media Newsroom