{"id":27510,"date":"2020-06-14T07:12:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-14T01:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=27510"},"modified":"2020-06-14T07:12:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T01:42:04","slug":"nearly-18000-twitter-account-spread-fake-news-for-bjp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=27510","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 18,000 Twitter accounts spread \u2018fake news\u2019 for BJP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ThePrint<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, which remains underway, has been conducted by a user of the social media portal Reddit who goes by the username \u2018\/u\/onosmosis\u2019.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Delhi:<\/strong> For each pro-Congress account spreading propaganda and fake news on Twitter, there are 120 doing the same for the BJP, a study has claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study has been conducted by a user of the social media portal Reddit who goes by the username \u2018\/u\/onosmosis\u2019. The user claims to have analysed lakhs of unverified Twitter accounts to identify trends in online misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Illustration
Illustration by Soham Sen | ThePrint<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Conducted with the help of an algorithm, the study started by identifying around 4 lakh Twitter accounts with a clear political leaning. Around 1.2 lakh of these accounts were identified as pro-Congress and 2.7 lakh as pro-BJP, according to the research, published on the user\u2019s webpage UrbanNazi.com. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study also identified the number of accounts that served as sources of misinformation and propaganda \u2014 while 17,779 pro-BJP accounts were identified thus, the number for the Congress stood at 147. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the study was conducted<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\/u\/onosmosis chose to stay anonymous for this report fearing troll attacks, but told ThePrint that he works as a software analyst at a tech start-up developing a platform for content management and sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study they conducted focused on identifying unverified politically-oriented Twitter accounts, because, according to \/u\/onosmosis, \u201cunverified accounts publish tweets with hate, abuse and false information in larger volume than verified accounts\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To do so, \/u\/onosmosis said they devised an algorithm to sift through lakhs of Twitter accounts in a bid to shortlist those that checked certain boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For an account to be identified as pro-BJP, their Twitter bio had to feature something like \u201cFollowed by Narendra Modi\u201d or \u201cIndia supports CAA\u201d. Other criteria included being followed by one or more verified accounts of a BJP office-bearer or minister, or at least 2 per cent of its total retweets coming from the verified accounts of a BJP party or leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accounts were identified as pro-Congress if the Twitter bio mentioned \u201cINC Supporter\u201d or \u201cI support Priyanka Gandhi\u201d, or if at least 2 per cent of its total retweets came from verified accounts of the party or any of its leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/u\/onosmosis also put in four hours each day \u201cto analyse stuff or modify my [computer] algorithm to capture tweets better and faster\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The computer, which ran 24 hours a day, eventually shortlisted over 3.9 lakh unverified Twitter accounts with a clear leaning towards the BJP or the Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research started 19 September 2019. While \/u\/onosmosis published these findings on 25 January, the analysis of tweets is still underway, the user said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through<\/strong> hashtags<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the study, social media\u2019s hashtag feature, which first took root with Twitter, is a common way to spread misinformation and propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, on the night of 5 January, as a masked mob bore down on students and teachers on the JNU campus in Delhi, a pro-BJP account called \u201c@pandeymanishmzp\u201d started using the hashtag #LeftAttacksJNU around 10.30 pm. The hashtag was then used over 2.3 lakh times in under 30 minutes, according to \/u\/onosmosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within an hour-and-a-half of @pandeymanishmzp\u2019s tweet, BJP IT head Amit Malviya used the same hashtag, tweeting, \u201c\u2026Left backed student\u2019s union are targeting members of ABVP\u2026\u201d. He appeared to back these claims with an accompanying video that shows a man identified as ABVP secretary Manish Jangid purportedly making the same allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manish Jangid, ABVP Secretary, narrates what happened in JNU. Left backed student\u2019s union are targeting members of ABVP so that academic session can be disrupted… #LeftAttacksJNU<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/1PLH6SefH6<\/a><\/p>— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 5, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>