Even basic "echo" based accounts that amplify tags and content are not being monitored in India. There are several accounts that do not post original content but function on copying posts. Some are verified and tend to earn from these posts. GoI, unfortunately, is lacking in many aspects when it comes to IW and correlated SM based misinformation campaigns. The lack of monitoring is both vexing and disappointing. There are OSINT accounts that have to tag these accounts and wait (for long durations) to get them investigated and banned. Indian traffic on SM accounts for a sufficient chunk and has helped many SM apps grow. However, the IB ministry continues to find itself on the backfoot when it comes to setting up a systemic check and balance procedure.
Indian Political Discussion
- Thread starter Parul
- Start date
I&B Ministry has workforce shortage. They need some kind of automation. They are currently trying to monitor things through crowd sourcing. Which is a painstakingly slow process. But, any kind of effective & efficient automation would require a bit of help from Social Media platforms themselves. And in the past that has led to legal battles between GoI and SM platforms. X & Meta vs GoI case is still going on.
But, even if they end up setting up a separate IW cell. With automated monitoring without the help of SM. There are gonna be some problems..the whole process of government asking the SM platform to carry out their order is itself a slow process. And depends on the whims of the SM platform. They might even ignore the order of the government on flimsy grounds. Which again would lead to legal battles. It's a very very tricky situation.
At that point the only solution left for the government would be to ban those SMs.
There are plenty of papers on SM misinformation campaign. The babus, who mostly come from non-technical backgrounds, will need to either hire workers on contractual basis or setup a well funded teams which has a suitable SME leading it.
A video covering the basics that I had found a long time ago. It is a decade or more older.
A video covering the basics that I had found a long time ago. It is a decade or more older.
Unfortunately Panda, there are solutions that can help mitigate the pain from say a 8/10 to a 4/10. These are not very tricky and do not involve massive efforts. There are smaller countries with much tighter budgets that are doing a much better job. It is not as slow as it made out to be. Do monitor the TAT for IB review it's in weeks not days. Also, there are instances where the bans are allowed to lapse as happened post Sindoor. Let's accept that certain incremental improvements that do not involve the SM sites themselves can be done. An OSINT account made a post that it waited 4 months to get an echo account (primarily targeting IA via synthetic content) blocked.
Additionally, there are actors/groups present within India that act as nodes in some campaign. This will cause some chagrin to people. However, there is plenty of evidence to support it.
I agree with you. I'm also saying our system isn't well equipped to handle these kinds of problems. Our system itself including both judiciary and government are very stupidly set-up to handle these issues. There is a lot of work needs to be done. Just improving monitoring won't fix it. Government will have to find ways to make Social media platforms accountable as well without getting into legal troubles. That's their job, so i don't know how they will do that. If you are talking about Singapore then I think the comparison isn't really valid because they have a single party Authoritarian setup. So, it's very easy for them carry out these things. We have to acknowledge that as well when it comes to these problems.
Our government and judiciary have to work together to resolve these issues.
I am not talking about SG. You only need to look at Indonesia, PH, JP. They are democracies and happen to quick when it comes to IB tasks.
I think a lot this has to be with govt failing to make SMs accountable. None of them fear GoI. They act like GoI won't do anything against them because they have backing of Uncle Sam. And it's true..GoI babus are very lax at their work. And GoI itself have not been as agressive as it was back in early 2020s for some reason. It's like it has laid downs it spears.
There was a lot of movement by the GoI back then around 2017, 2020s to set-up some kind of IW cell. But then nothing bore any fruit.
If that is the case, then it a failure (a big one) and should be taken note of by people (society in general). GoI seems to be quite ill-prepared for certain things. It made no to negligible investment in certain domains. Cybersecurity and data protection is also bad...there are recent cases that were just plain embarrassing.
Talking peace will not work out sometimes. The whole "peace-out and chill" Kool-aid needs to be put down. Indian officials and politicians in particular comes across as ill informed and naive when it comes to the cyber counter measures and IW.
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Delhi Police lodge FIR after CBSE complains of ‘coordinated’ cyber attacks on post-result portal
The complaint was filed with the Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO), the Cyber Unit of Delhi Police.
indianexpress.com
I think our efforts only was limited to defence sector.
The government did some initial investment on DCyA and then they forgot about everything else..We need a civilian equivalent of DCyA.