The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India used a sophisticated app called Tek Fog to manipulate social media platforms, hijack Twitter trends, harass critics, and spread propaganda through automated accounts and compromised WhatsApp profiles.
According to investigations by The Wire, social media operatives affiliated with India's ruling BJP used an app called Tek Fog to manipulate public discourse across major social media platforms. The app allows users to bypass email and text verification controls on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, acting as a master control for multiple accounts to push hashtags and content. On WhatsApp, Tek Fog hijacks inactive accounts to message contacts and collect personal information for a political database used in future harassment campaigns. Between January and April 2021, The Wire tracked 4.6 million replies to 280 prominent women journalists and found that 18% came from accounts managed by Tek Fog. Language analysis tools from IBM and Amazon classified a majority of posts via Tek Fog to ShareChat as hate speech. The investigation revealed connections to private companies Persistent Systems and Mohalla Tech, with evidence suggesting the app was used to amplify right-wing propaganda, target users by religion, age, gender, or profession, and conduct systematic harassment of journalists and critics. The app could create temporary accounts, auto-reply with abusive content, and delete evidence of activities.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed