Elections
campaigns would soon reach a feverish pitch ~ how different are they now ? –
what do parties do to woe people to vote for them ?
How
addicted are you to Facebook or any other social media ? – the question now is
not whether you have a FB account – but how often you check that – and how many
posts do you post on a single day ? – do not be surprised that some have
multiple IDs (some masked / fake profiles)and have the habit of commenting on
their own posts with a different ID – all by themselves. So, how authentic is the ID and how authentic
is the comment ?
Some web search
revealed the following : -
Authenticity: (noun)
: the quality of being authentic.
synonyms: genuineness,
originality;
Unauthentic
: (adjective) not made or done in a way
that reflects tradition or faithfully resembles an original.
Inauthentic
: (adjective) not in fact what it is said to be; not genuinely belonging to a style or period;
lacking sincerity.
Facebook Inc announced
on Monday it has taken down 103 “assets” ─ pages, groups and accounts ─ of
Pakistani-origin that the company said were linked to employees of
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) and involved in “coordinated inauthentic
behaviour” ~ reported Paki media Dawn. It added that the media giant — which today shared details on
"four separate, distinct and unconnected" takedowns linked to both
Pakistan and India — said it had removed the pages, accounts and groups set up
by the networks "for violating Facebook's policies on coordinated
inauthentic behaviour or spam". FB
removed 103 pages, groups and accounts
on both Facebook and Instagram as part of a network that originated in Pakistan
~ and .. .. it was
further reported in many other media too that FB has removed 687 pages and accounts linked to individuals
associated with an IT Cell of the Indian National Congress
"Today we
removed 103 pages, groups and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic
behaviour on Facebook and Instagram as part of a network that originated in
Pakistan," said a statement issued by Nathaniel Gleicher, the company’s
head of Cybersecurity Policy, on the investigation. “Although the people behind
this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found
that it was linked to employees of the ISPR of the Pakistani military,” said
the statement. "The takedown is
because there is this network of fake accounts that they are using to conceal
their identity and make these pages look independent, when in fact they are
not," said Gleicher while talking to Dawn.com.
Facebook announced recently that it is adding a feature called
“Why am I seeing this post?” to News Feeds. Similar to “Why am I seeing this
ad?,” which has appeared next to advertisements since 2014, the new tool has a
dropdown menu that gives users information about why that post appeared in
their News Feed, along with links to personalization controls. Meant to give
users more transparency into how Facebook’s News Feed algorithm works, the
update comes as the company copes with several major events that have
highlighted the platform’s shortcomings, including potentially harmful ones.
These include its role in enabling the dissemination of a video taken during the
shooting attacks on New Zealand mosques two weeks ago, which were originally
broadcast using Facebook Live; a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development that accuses Facebook’s ad-targeting tool of
violating the Fair Housing Act and its role in spreading misinformation and
propaganda.
On the eve of Indian
general elections, Facebook removing 687 pages – is relevant – we have been
reading so many news items, posts, a sudden spurt in electoral campaign, posts
discrediting the incumbent Govt’s accomplishments – and many thousands of them
emanated from those 687 pages, accounts
linked to Congress IT Cell now reported
by FB for ‘inauthentic behaviour’
According Facebook
Head of Cybersecurity Policy Nathaniel Gleicher - “When we remove one of these
networks, the reason we remove them is because of their coordinated inauthentic
behaviour, that they are using network of fake accounts to conceal their
identity….to mislead who’s behind them. That’s the basic reason for removal,”
“We are constantly working to detect and stop coordinated inauthentic behaviour
because we don’t want our services to be used to manipulate people. We’re
taking down these pages and accounts based on their behaviour, not the content
they posted,” he said. No immediate comments could
be obtained from the Congress which should feel shamed and owes an explanation
to the electorate in trying to mislead them through wrongful means and malafide
intentions.
With ensuing general
elections, the Indian government had warned social media platforms of strong
action if any attempt was made to influence the country’s electoral process
through undesirable means. Talking about the steps taken post the removal,
Gleicher said: “We have reached out to the INC to educate them about what we
have seen and answer questions they have. “While the people behind this
activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review found that it was
connected to individuals associated with an INC IT Cell,” Gleicher said. In a blog post, Facebook – which has over 200 million
users in India – said the pages and accounts removed had spent around USD
39,000 for ads on Facebook, paid for in Indian rupees. The first ad ran in
August 2014 and the most recent ad ran in March 2019.
So the war is not
fought on ground ! ~ in cyberspace too .. .. a couple of decades ago, it was
more of the campaign – the cycle rallies, those roadshows, roadside meetings,
candidate personally meeting the electorate all tilted the balance – now the
fight is fought differently – while the cash that was to be distributed to
electorate, seized from politician’s
houses makes some news – these huge money spending too should be brought under
the scanner. Dynasty has camoflauged their true colours for so many decades and
now there are fresher attempts.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
2nd Apr
2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment