By Kashif Ahmed
LIPO: Low-Intensity PSYOP
SNS-PSYOP: Social Networking Sites PSYOP
Now most of you already know this, but for the benefit of any newcomers: The intent behind an SNS-PSYOP is for one group of people (i.e. a troll farm) to impersonate, incriminate and frame another group of people.
The difference between a standard troll farm and an SNS-PSYOPS troll farm, is that the former is primarily set up for anonymous overt activity (i.e. intimidation, disruption, sabotage) whilst the latter operates covertly via bots and impostors / impersonators.
One of the most famous examples of an SNS-PSYOP impersonation, would be the case of U.S. based Zionist, Tim MacMaster: Who pretended to be the fictional ‘Amina Arraf –Lebanese lesbian blogger trapped in Syria’ posting fake news updates from the war, circa 2011.
American Zionist, Tim Macmaster, pretended to be a fictional lesbian blogger in a failed PSYOP against Syria.
And I’m sure we’ve all encountered the ‘Nigerian’ hasbarat at some point, the pro-Hindutva ‘Shia’, the pro-Israeli ‘Sunni’ and all manner of other shills & charlatans spreading disinfo & fake news via SNS.
The thing to remember here; is that all of the aforementioned characters (e.g. the Nigerian hasbarat) may exist in real life. But its the artificial proliferation and wide-scale deployment of this archetype by the enemy, which forms the basis of SNS-PSYOPS.
“SNS have not changed the place of PSYOPS in warfare but rather have potentially given rise to a new medium with features that magnify the PSYOPS scope”.
Social Networking Sites as a Tool of Psychological Operations: A Case Study By Josepeh Mabima, King’s College London, August 2018
Case in the point: Indian troll farm exposed, network partially shut down, remaining members (bots) reassigned.
16th December, 2019: INDIAN FAKE NEWS NETWORK BUSTED
When a troll farm’s activities have been exposed / pinpointed, the handler(s) usually have two options:
1) Disband the network.
2) Relocate its field of operations / reassign their operatives.
“A self-described former troll in India says he was given a half-dozen Facebook accounts and eight cell phones after he joined a 300-person team that worked to intimidate opponents of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
A Global Guide to State-Sponsored Trolling, By Michael Riley, Lauren Etter and Bibhudatta Pradhan, Bloomberg, July 19th, 2018
India’s priors on Instagram
INDIA’S INSTA PSYOP AGAINST THE CAST OF ERTUGRUL
2019: Esra Bilgic makes pro-Pakistan comments on social media, and expresses an interest in making a documentary about Kashmir. She is attacked by Indian trolls following her clash with Hindutva propagandist, Priyanka Copra.
May 2020: Ertugrul is dubbed in Urdu, released in Pakistan and becomes a phenomenally popular, record-breaking show.
June 2020: Esra Bilgic is allegedly trolled by ‘Pakistani’ Instagram users over photos of her at the beach and elsewhere. This prompts a regimented wave of pre-prepared condemnations from pro-Indian shills / those affiliated to foreign-funded NGOS / Geo TV-Mir-Shakil ur Rehman-Nawaz Sharif supporters.
My summarized assessment of the PSYOP was as follows:
“I suspect most of those trolls were Indians pretending to be Pakistanis, or pro-Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman types.”
Upon closer inspection, it’s obvious that many of the Instagram accounts who criticized Esra, were fake.
Many have since been deleted, or are no longer active.
The majority of accounts who expressed ‘outrage’ at the aforementioned comments; were also pro-Indian, and linked to foreign funded NGOs / supporters of jailed media magnate, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman (owner of Geo News). And no prizes for guessing which channel has been promoting this PSYOP almost everyday for two months straight, who else but Geo News.
Despite the fact that their PYSOP flopped; India’s scam did, to some extent, stir up a short-lived scandal: A scandal in which the enemy relied upon the gullibility / laziness of the target audience (i.e. social media users) to buy into the con, and work a narrative around that fabricated premise (i.e. moral policing in Pakistan targeting an allied country and attempting to alienate a pro-Pakistani person).
India’s PSYOP failed, not because the majority of people got wise to it, but simply because the force-multipliers on the ground (i.e. real Pakistani social media users) overwhelmed both the Indian troll farm and their out-in-the-open, Pakistan-based shills: The PSYOP fizzled out; even though many of those who’d helped thwart it, had absolutely no idea that they’d just beaten a troll farm.
The fact that some social media users simply latched onto India’s lies without dong any research; is indicative of how SNS-PSYOPS prey upon the bad habits of the average user: Even those who ought to have known better, simply didn’t take the time to look into the issue: They just went with the propaganda for cheap laughs; perhaps in a bid to riff off the trend and gain followers, or perhaps just to indulge in a bit of self-aggrandizing tomfoolery.
Its a cliche at this point, but whenever something doesn’t quite seem right to you; if it sounds fake or OTT, just ask yourselves that old question: ‘Cui Bono’? ‘Who Benefits’?
‘JUSTICE FOREVER, FREEDOM FOREVER’
Pakistan, Turkey and the cast of Ertugrul may have won the internet, but this whole scenario gave us a valuable insight into the functioning dynamics of a low-intensity, SNS-PSYOP. And how the enemies of Islam (e.g. the illegitimate state of Israel, Hindutva-RSS goons, NGO liberals et al) will instinctively stoop to the lowest level to try and prevent any kind of unity between Muslims: Whether that’s military, political / ideological solidarity (i.e. working to liberate Kashmir and Palestine) or even entertainment-based, cultural-exchanges like Ertugrul.
And as for the Indians and their collaborators? Well, this whole thing was a stark reminder about what can happen when an SNS-PSYOP backfires: I mean; who’s to say the cast of Ertugrul weren’t informed about where those fake accounts were based? Who’s to say Esra Bilgic and others didn’t figure all this out for themselves at some point? After all, the Turks seem to love the Pakistanis (and vice versa) more now than they did before the PSYOP!
So here’s hoping Esra Bilgic visits Pakistan soon, and makes that documentary about Kashmir. Here’s hoping that every Indian PSYOP fails as spectacularly as this one. And here’s hoping that Ertugrul’s magnificent motto blossoms its way into the Psyche of pro-Palestine, pro-Kashmir people around the world: ‘Sonsuza dek adalet sonsuza dek özgürlük’: Justice Forever, Freedom Forever.
Forward March 