New Delhi: TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien has written to the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs seeking a meeting of the panel to discuss the issue of "hijacking and manipulating" social media trends using the 'Tek Fog' app which he said is a "threat" to national security and privacy of citizens.
This is the second letter the TMC MP has written to Congress leader and panel head Anand Sharma for a meeting.
A report on the news portal 'The Wire' had alleged that people associated with the ruling BJP's IT cell were purportedly using the app to take control of inactive WhatsApp accounts, send messages to frequently contacted numbers, and hijack trending topics on social media platforms.
In his letter on Monday, O'Brien said that the expose shows that the Tek Fog app gives cyber troops the ability to hijack WhatsApp accounts of private citizens by sending them spyware disguised as a media file. It then remotely accesses inactive accounts in their contact lists and uses the inactive number to send targeted messages to all their contacts.
