Page 13 - Pakistan Link - August 13, 2021

PAKISTAN AUGUST 13, 2021 – PAKISTAN LINK – P13
Afghan, Indian Social Media Accounts Electronic Voting Machines

Being Used to Malign Pakistan: NSA Yusuf Can’t Be Hacked, Says Faraz

at this scale, he added.
He said the PTM had also ac-
tively supported Baloch activism
and on Aug 14, 2020, the hashtag
‘#BalochistanSolidarityDay’ was
trended with massive support from
India, with around 150,000 tweets
posted with the hashtag by Indian
activists in a day.
The minister went on to say

that a few other trends under
hashtags ‘#PTMExposedFakeTer-
rorism’, ‘#DaSangaAzadiDa’ and
#BalochistanSolidarityDay had over
200,000 tweets backed by India,
while other trends were also started
under titles such as ‘Tyrant Pakistan
Army’, ‘Army behind target killings’,
Islamabad: National Security Ad- them. “These hashtags are initiated and ‘Pakistan Army Kill Pashtuns’ to Islamabad: Minister for Science mocracy.

viser Moeed Yusuf said on Wednes- through 40 per cent of bot activity,” defame Pakistan. “These trends were and Technology Shibli Faraz said Last week, Prime Minister
day that social media accounts op- he said. initiated by PTM and supported by on Wednesday that electronic vot- Imran Khan himself received a
erated from Afghanistan and India The NSA also called out the Af- India,” he added. ing machines (EVMs) could not be detailed presentation and a dem-

were being used to malign Pakistan ghan army, saying the force that was He noted that a new hashtag hacked and were the best solution to onstration of a new locally made
as Afghan authorities failed to stop raised 20 years ago had surrendered was now being trended titled problems of rigging during polls. EVM.

sweeping territorial gains made by before the Taliban and excused itself ‘#SanctionPakistan’, which had at Addressing a media briefing Talking to Dawn after the

the Taliban. from putting up a fight. least 800,000 tweets, 20,000 among at Parliament House in Islamabad, briefing held at the Prime Minister
Addressing a press conference “It’s not our fault. You must them from the PTM. Afghan Vice where the government had sched- House, Faraz had said that the ma-
alongside Information Minister look at the Afghanistan map and see President Amrullah Saleh, NSA uled a demonstration of EVMs for chine had been developed keeping
Fawad Chaudhry, Yusuf regretted the territories captured by the Tali- Rehmatullah Andar and Defense lawmakers, the science minister as- in mind the ground realities and in

the “global silence” in response to ban. They are mostly areas which are Minister M. Bismillah also partici- sured everyone that the machines accordance with the specifications

India propagating disinformation far off from Pakistan,” he stressed. pated in these campaigns, he said. “couldn’t be hacked or riddled with of the ECP, which had previously

against Pakistan. Yusuf said a “targeted, deliber- Chaudhry said another “inter- bugs” since they were not con- rejected the use of EVMs on tech-
But he said the government ate and conscious” disinformation esting trend” seen was that Wikipe- nected to the internet, dependent nical grounds.
would keep presenting analytics- campaign was being constantly run dia administrators from India were on mechanisms such as Bluetooth, According to the minister, the
based data to show the “information by accounts in India and Afghani- “designing campaigns for PTM and WiFi or an operating system. new EVM was simple and user-
warfare” being faced by Pakistan. stan, some of which were linked to also running their pages on the web- He hailed EVMs as the solu- friendly for voters as well as the
“Afghanistan has a volatile situ- the state apparatus, in order to de- site”. tion to rigging during and after polling staff and it would eliminate

ation now, but let me tell you Af- fame Pakistan in the international The proof of such activity was elections. Through electronic vot- chances of rigging as it could not

ghan and Indian accounts are being arena. shown in EU Disinfo Lab’s report ing, Faraz added, elections would be bugged or hacked as it would
used to malign Pakistan,” he added, “I must remind you that Paki- titled ‘Indian Chronicles’ that ex- be transparent and their results have no operating system and
noting that ‘Sanction Pakistan’ was stan is a victim of the war in Af- posed 845 websites created to prop- immediate and trustable. would not be connected to the in-

widely trended on Twitter to create ghanistan. We suffered more than agate disinformation about Paki- The science minister called ternet.
a narrative against the country. 80,000 casualties with $150 billion stan, he recalled. upon lawmakers to come and test EVM, P23

He clarified that he had just re- loss in economy, therefore, stop The minister said there were out the EVM on display to satisfy
turned from the United States and blaming the victim,” he added. several instances of misleading themselves. Pakistan Rejects
there was no talk of sanctioning The NSA emphasized that the tweets like on the occasion of the He said it was up to the Elec-

Pakistan. actual failures were in the 20 years death of Baloch activist Karima tion Commission of Pakistan Report of
“Attempts are underway to of what happened in Afghanistan. Baloch in Canada, when it was al- (ECP) to decide whether the ma-

blame Pakistan for Afghanistan’s “This [propaganda] will not work leged that ‘StateKilledKarimaBa- chines fulfilled the requirements, ‘Cracking Down’

failures. As the Taliban offensive is because the kind of data we are loch’ but Canadian police later con- adding that the ECP was the only
increasing, there are campaigns to showing you through forensics is ir- firmed her death was a natural one. constitutional institution that on Dissidents

shift its blame on Pakistan.” refutable,” he said. “But PTM did 20,000 tweets using could approve or reject them.

Yusuf said senior Afghan of- He added that many in posi- that hashtag to target Pakistan,” he “We are coordinating with the abroad
ficials, including his Afghan coun- tions of power at the global level added. ECP. Before or immediately after

terpart, were involved in such cam- were busy trying to shift the blame Citing another example, Muharram [we will demonstrate Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday
paigns, adding that the government and create fake news about Pakistan, Chaudhry said the hashtag ‘#Rap- EVMs to the ECP], obviously it’s “categorically rejected” a foreign
would expose everything through “but we will respond to it through istArmyinBalochistan’ was trended the biggest stakeholder,” he said. media report claiming the country
data and not fake news. “We won’t data analysis”. but it later turned out to be fake. He added that the govern- was cracking down on dissidents
expose fake news through fake He also urged Pakistanis not to The majority of the tweets were con- ment had tried to incorporate all abroad, with the Foreign Office

news,” he commented. believe everything on social media, tributed from India and some from the requirements of the ECP into terming such accusations baseless.

The remarks came as the Digi- asking them to check and verify if the US to this particular trend, he the EVMs. The FO, responding to the re-

tal Media Wing of the Ministry they saw a trend going in a particu- added. Responding to a number of port published in The Guardian,
of Information and Broadcasting lar direction. He said a trend was also created questions on how EVMs func- said there was no question of any
launched a “Deep Analytics Report” He assured the nation that the alleging that former special assistant tioned, Faraz said repeated votes threat being made to any national

on “Anti-State Trends”. country was safe and would remain to the prime minister Zulfi Bukhari were not possible, adding that of any state including Pakistan’s

The 135-page report covering safe, saying the government would had visited Israel. “The trend was ti- EVMs were not connected with own nationals living anywhere on

“PTM, Political Parties, Indian and not shy away from calling out who- tled ‘Zulfi Imran Bajwa Israeli tikon the National Database and Regis- any pretext whatsoever.

Fake News Nexus” dissects what ever was involved in defaming Paki- (triangle)’, and it was created by the tration Authority. The report had claimed that
it terms anti-Pakistan trends from stan. Israeli group Haaretz, and more He emphasized that voters exiled Pakistanis who were critical

2019 to 2021. than 10,000 tweets were done under would continue to be unidentifi- of the military had been warned by
According to NSA Yusuf, the ‘India generating fake Twitter it,” he added. able and that votes would not be UK authorities “that they will be

five top themes used by the elements trends helped by PTM’ The minister said whether verified through thumb impres- targeted”.

involved in the propaganda are: Earlier, Information Minister knowingly or unknowingly, repre- sions but voter lists instead. “Pakistan, a strong UK ally —

• Discredit the Pakistani Chaudhry said government teams sentatives of the JUI-F and PML-N “The machine will only decide particularly on intelligence issues
government and especially Pakistan had analyzed Twitter trends from had also tweeted under the hashtag the process of entering the vote,” — might be prepared to target in-
Army June 2019 to August 2021 and “it created to spread misinformation. he explained. dividuals on British soil,” the story
• Fan sub-nationalism transpired that India led the top Faraz said three per cent of alleged.

• Target the China-Pakistan trends against Pakistan and the big- ‘TLP tweets supported by In- votes or a total of 1.8 million votes The Guardian report also fea-
Economic Corridor (CPEC) gest player which helped India was dia’ were wasted from all over the tured a statement from Mark Lyall
• Keep Pakistan on the Fi- PTM (Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement) “We have seen TLP tweets are country during general elections Grant, the former UK High Com-

nancial Action Task Force (FATF) and its activists.” He added that rep- getting huge support from India,” and margins of victory often came missioner to Pakistan, who said: “If
grey list resentatives of the Afghan govern- Chaudhry told the presser. down to one or two votes. EVMs there is illegal pressure, in particu-
• Blame Pakistan for all the ment were also part of such activity. Citing the analysis of his team, would eliminate this waste, he said. lar on journalists in the UK, then I
chaos in Afghanistan Giving a breakdown of a few he said a thorough reading into the Meanwhile, National Assem- would expect the law enforcement
trends allegedly based on disinfor- trends showed that foreign elements bly Speaker Asad Qaiser took to agencies and the British govern-
‘Stop blaming the victim’ mation, Chaudhry said the PTM had huge contributions in spreading Twitter after testing the EVM out ment to take notice of that and to

Yusuf regretted that a number had initiated 150 trends against Pak- anarchy inside Pakistan. “When the for himself, saying that technologi- make an appropriate legal and/or
of people inside Pakistan too un- istan in the last two years consisting Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) cal advancements were “pivotal” diplomatic response.”

knowingly believed such trends to of 3.7 million tweets — and it takes started tweeting under a campaign, to ensure transparency in the elec- The report also noted that a
be genuine and started promoting more than 1,000 hours to do tweets NSA, P24 toral process and strengthen de- REPORT, P23
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