1.THE CHRONOLOGY OF SUBTLE ART OF ONLINE PROPAGANDA
A synchronized attempt to provoke Sikhs and cause a rift with Hindus to create civil unrest.
A chronology of events exposing the modus operandi of Pak machinery and their colluders in India.
A Thread 👇👇
2.Farm laws were repealed in Nov 2021. The decision was met with mixed reactions from both sides. Several clubhouse/Twitter space forums discussed the topic, some even foul and outright stupid, if not ugly.
3.Pak disinfo ‘Think-tank’
Pakistani Strategic Forum (PSF) launched a campaign targeting the Indian Sikh community – through a fake video on December 29, 2021 – “Marginalization of the Sikh Officers in Indian Army” - to instigate the Indian Sikh community.
4.Pak troll factory at work:
The video was pushed by a set of Pak handles, to seed in the propaganda. Having planted the fake video, it was then deleted by PSF to remove any trace of Pak handles’ involvement.
5.On 5 Jan, a Twitter handle @himalayanwoman posted a cleverly-cropped snippet of a months-old random audio clip of clubhouse session to instigate the Indian Sikhs. The video didn’t get any traction that time, but was later used for mass circulation on social media.
6.PM’s car blockade in Punjab and another opportunity
On the same day, the security breach during PM’s visit to poll-bound Punjab created heightened tension, and these are circumstances ripe for spreading rumours and conspiracies.
7.However, the efforts so far do not succeed as the Pak handles do not have much traction/ following in India. The audio needed to reach an Indian audience, especially Sikhs for impact. They needed Indian catalysts...
8.‘Fact-checker’ chips in:
Out of the blue, the same months-old, out-of-context cropped audio clipping is re-posted by the "ace fact-checker" of India @zoo_bear on his Twitter handle at 2:31 AM on Jan 7!
Subtle. ...
9.The same handle which recycled the cropped audio clip, replied to Zubair’s post, doxxing the speaker of the audio @ 3.01 AM! At least two ppl were awake at 3 AM, worried about Indian Sikhs?
10.Pak Propaganda Machinery takes off
Once the audio is hyped in public, the fake news industry spins it with a video of a Cabinet meeting in India to give it even bigger hype.
11.Fake accounts led the propaganda
The morphed video was first posted by the handle @eshal_kaur that changed its name after posting the doctored video. Having circulated the fake video, the accounts were deleted/suspended.
@eshal_kaur not only shared the video but also RTd other’s post multiple times within hours to give it a further boost.
A Gif of the Timeline shows the effort👇
15. The same accounts Promoted SFJ campaigns in the past.
Apart from sharing fake videos, these accounts operate like bots to amplify each other’s contents and promote pro-Khalistani agenda, initiated by the Pak-backed separatist group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ).
14. To his credit, after the video was proven fake, the "ace fact-checker" again claimed that the video was fake in response to Eshal Kaur from the Pak network. Though he was blissfully unaware abt the fake handle and network.
Subtle indeed...
15. The story is an eye-opener to how random out-of-context audio/videos could be circulated without any rhyme or reason seeding dangerous narratives by people who are supposed to know better.
Or maybe they do know what they are doing....
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