Digital forensics report shows network of imposters in Pakistan pushing Pro-China narratives
Apr 18, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], April 18 : Reports by digital forensics and fact-checking centre confirm that many imposters in Pakistan are using the digital platform to carry out Pro-China and Pro-Pakistan narratives through fake Twitter accounts.
Digital Forensics, Research and Analytics Centre (D-FRAC), a non-partisan and independent media organization that focuses on fact-checking revealed that many Twitter IDs are solely dedicated to China-Pakistan economic corridor(CPEC) and many CPEC tweets are retweeted by other fake accounts.
Additionally, there are other fake accounts that tweets and retweets posts about Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. The reports reveal that many of these Twitter accounts have changed their usernames to fulfil their motives.
In an exclusive report, the centre covered some fake Pakistani accounts like @Xinhua_88 and @ChinaPakWW. These accounts have now been suspended by Twitter. In its new report, Pakistani imposters have debunked some more Pakistani imposters and have exposed their narratives.
One such Twitter account is @MelaneJones. The old username of this handle was @shqft81. This id is filled with Pro-China and Pro-Pakistan tweets. The most commonly used words in the tweets by this ID include, "Pakistan", "China", "Pakistani", "Chinese", "Gwadar", and "Islamabad" among others.
The hashtags that were used by this account include #Pakistan, #PakvAus, #Cpec, #Gwadar, and #Islamabad among others. Tweets by another ID @RachaelMoris include words such as "Pakistan", "beautiful", "heaven", and "war". Rachael Moris used some hashtags such as, "#RussiaUkraineConflict", "#PakvAus", "#Ukraine", "#WWIII", and "#WorldWar3".
Another such account is of Ananya Khan. The old username of this Twitter handle was @Mehreen890.
The report unveils the network of these fake accounts trying to push their own agendas by manipulating their IDs and tweeting/retweeting their agenda posts. @Gwadar_Pro was mostly tagged or mentioned in the tweets of Melane Jones. @Gwadar_Pro was mentioned the most with 156 tags. It was followed by @RachaelMoris with 10 tags and @MelaneJones. All these accounts have similar Pro-China or Pro-Pakistan agendas.
