New Delhi: As if facing the adversary in the Himalayan high-altitude difficult terrain was not enough, the Indian Army had to face a bombardment of tweets and social media posts in cyber-space during the ongoing standoff with China's PLA in east Ladakh and north Sikkim.
In a study brought out by 'Innefu', a cyber security firm, over a period of three months from April 7 to July 7, 2020, it concluded that at least 38 per cent of the tweets and posts on Facebook and You Tube were by posted by 'bots'.
"The total volume of voice on the topic (anti-Army posts) for the period of one month (June 6, 2020 to July 6, 2020) revealed that a total of 4,045 social media profiles have shared anti-Indian army content. The number of suspected 'bots' on the topic was recorded; (it) revealed that more almost approximately 38 per cent of the narrative was driven by 'bots' and trolls," the report pointed out.
Interestingly, the report found that 1,366 Twitter profiles were created to be a part of the anti-Indian Army cyber offensive between June 1, 2020 and July 6, 2020.
'Innefu' works closely with the Indian government in the cyber domain.
The report also found a very strong Pakistani connection. "As many as 1,689 common profiles were recovered in the network of the Pakistan based 'social media' cells highlighting their inter-connection," the report concluded.
Though the PLA buildup near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) had started earlier, the latest India-China conflict can be said to have been kick-started by a violent fistfight between the two armies on May 5 on the northern bank of the Pangong lake in east Ladakh followed by another border brawl in north Sikkim on May 9-10.
Read: 8 cooks, 300 'hot' meals in 80 minutes: How PLA is training military cooks for Himalayan winter
The worst incident was the Galwan valley fight on June 15 where at least 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of PLA troops were killed.
"The cyber world has become the new arena of war where the army of 'Bots' and Trolls are waging the war-cry. Social media and the cyber world has now become the source of major information and news making it a metaphorical mirror of sorts of all the nation states," the report pointed out.
It is commonly believed that of the 330 million monthly active users and 145 million daily active users on Twitter, about 35 million are 'bots'.
Besides targeting the Indian Army, the two other common themes around which the 'bots' weaved a web of anti-India narratives were 'Kashmir' and 'Khalistan'.
From April 6, 2020 to July 7, 2020, a whopping number of 6,599 accounts were created with radical content for Kashmir, of which 2,633 were created in a one-month period from June 6, 2020 to July 6, 2020.
Read: With spike in India-China animosity, NE insurgents join forces, strike near Myanmar border
"The total social media statistics for the period of aforementioned month showed that the total profiles posting on the content are 13,419. Based on the 'Bot' matrix, it was recorded that approximately 20 per cent of the voice on the topic of Kashmir secessionist propaganda is that of Bots and Trolls," the report said.
The 'Innefu' report named several Pakistani 'teams' that operated the 'bots'. They include 'Team Eagles', 'Team ISF', 'Defenders_Of_Pk', 'Team Patriot', 'Pak Cyber Force', 'DefendersOfPk', 'Team ISP', 'Pakistan Volunteer's Force', etc.
Of the accounts created in the period of analysis, while 54 per cent did not reveal their place of origin, 30.1 per cent revealed Pakistan as their origin, 11.5 per cent revealed it as India, 0.4 per cent for US, while 2 per cent accounted for other geographies.
