Pakistan

Fake social media accounts casting shadow over Pakistani politics

Fake accounts have long been used in Pakistani politics to manipulate opinion and target political opponents

News Desk June 03, 2018

Fake accounts have long been used in Pakistani politics to manipulate opinion and target political opponents. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE

Spreading fake news through social media platforms is not something new to Pakistani politics.

Imran Khan's recent revocation of Farooq Bandial's membership from the party following a social media backlash after the latter's picture appeared with the PTI chairman.

Bandial was convicted of raping prominent Pakistani film star Jharna Basak popularly known as Shabnam, currently residing in Bangladesh.

A new controversy arose on social media after Shabnam praised Imran for cancelling Bandial's party membership in a tweet, which reportedly came from a fake doctored twitter account impersonating the actress.

PTI/ Farhan Virk convert an old account to Shabnam’s fake account, and Nadeem Malik & Mubashir Lucman read out this tweet on TV. Truly pathetic attempt at climbing out of the fiasco. Check the RTs from 2014. Shame on you for now rubbing salt in her wounds to cover your tracks. pic.twitter.com/vZ1yGHGf9e
— Gul Bukhari (@GulBukhari) June 1, 2018

Fake twitter accounts have long been used in the country's politics to manipulate opinion and target political opponents.

A host of prominent politicians including Imran, Shehbaz Sharif, Meryam Nawaz, Farhatullah Babar, Ayesha Gulalai and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, have fake twitter handles operating on social media platforms such as Twitter.

These accounts are operated by fake trolls who are falsifying opinions and perceptions of the population by impersonating prominent politicians.

https://twitter.com/m_shahbazsharif/status/984138438575316992

A fake micro-blogging account of Shehbaz Sharif criticised the PTI government's performance in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Here are some of the fake accounts:

https://twitter.com/m_shahbazsharif

https://twitter.com/KhanPTIOfficial

https://twitter.com/SenFarhatullahB

https://twitter.com/PPP_Bilawal_B_Z

https://twitter.com/MeryamNSharif

https://twitter.com/GulalaiOfficial

https://twitter.com/HamzaSsharif

With the elections around the corner, impersonation of politicians through fake Twitter handles poses a grave danger to the country's democratic process.

COMMENTS (2)

Muhammad Raza | 5 years ago | Reply and i think government should be accountable to block and control fake accounts, propaganda and blackmails. this will make Facebook a very influential platform for the solution and awareness of many things in our society.

Muhammad Raza | 5 years ago | Reply nowadays every other person have a genuine and a fake account. the genuine account is used for normal use while the fake account is mostly misused for baseless news, propaganda, blackmailing and other negative activities. this misuse of social media will obviously have a negative impact on our society and political environment also. there are FIA cyber crime laws which should be implicated and control these activities.

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