An illustration with two Sikh men sitting in the foreground and a network depicted behind with dots representing social media profiles. – Source: BBC
By Shruti Menon and Flora Carmichael | BBC |
A network of fake social media profiles of people claiming to be Sikhs, and promoting divisive narratives, has been exposed.
A new report shared exclusively with the BBC ahead of its publication on Wednesday identified 80 accounts in the network, which have now been suspended because they were fake.
The influence operation used accounts across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to promote Hindu nationalism and pro-Indian government narratives.
The aim of the network appears to have been to “alter perceptions on important issues around Sikh independence, human rights and values”, according to the report’s author, Benjamin Strick.
There is no evidence linking this network directly with the Indian government, which has yet to respond to a BBC request for comment.
‘Sock puppets’
The network used so-called “sock puppet” accounts, which are fake ones controlled by real people posing as independent individuals, rather than automated “bots”.
The fake profiles used Sikh names and claimed to be “Real Sikhs”. They used the hashtags #RealSikh to endorse, and #FakeSikh to discredit, different political viewpoints.
The report, from non-profit organisation the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), found many of the accounts in the network used the same fake profiles across several platforms. These accounts shared the same names, profile pictures and cover photos, and published identical posts.
Many of the accounts used profile pictures of celebrities, including actresses in the Punjabi film industry.
Read the full story, ‘Farm laws: Fake social media profiles targeting Sikhs exposed’ (BBC, 24 Nov 2021), here.
This Tweet from a fake account in the network received nearly 17,000 likes – Photo: BBC
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