Is the BJP's IT Cell a Master at Fudging Figures and Propaganda ?

Even as the Times of India in its Agra edition reported that information technology is going to be used, big time, to gloss over government failures and non-delivery to create yet another 2014-like blitz krieg around prime minister, Narendra Modi, a young man's video on You-Tube published recently already has over 45,000 views.

"I expose how the machinery of BJP IT Cell spreads fake news and propaganda using photoshops, paid twitter trends, paid Facebook pages and paid news. The twitter accounts I mentioned are influencers hired by PR companies who are paid to trend hashtags on twitter...." says Dhruv Rathee, the creator of this effort.

This video comes even as the national media reports how in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, BJP's IT cell has embarked on a mission to ensure that at least 10 lakh Narendra Modi's app are downloaded. Each member of the party's 15,000-strong IT cell has been given the task of targeting 66 people and motivating them to download the app. The mission was launched on Wednesday, and camps are being organized at various places, particularly colleges, to connect youths to the Prime Minister.

In the video, Dhruv Rathee explains:

Fifty Per cent or More of the Tweets From the Paid Twitter Handles and ‘Influencers” hired by Public Relations(PR) firms are based on Fake News

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Modi has relied on Paid twitter Trends. Each Tweet is Paid for. Public Relations (PR) Companies and ‘Influencers are Used to Influence the Social Media
 
How can you Identify such Paid tweets and Hashtags?

Check them out carefully. Have a look at the Sample Tweets that are Paid for. For Each Tweet, the Party Pays Rs 50-70 per Tweet. Not Bad for Pocket Money for Hundreds of Unemployed Youth who have no clue the impact of Bartering Truth for Propaganda!!

One way of identifying them that all these engineered tweets are with trending hashtags and come at specific/set times!
 
For Example look at this

“The Red Lipstick” calls herself an Inflencer…no holds barred…

What are the Other Tools that the BJP Uses?
One of the most over used tools of the BJP that is much over-used is Photoshopped Pictures and Morphed images
For example to create a larger than life image of Narendra Modi Behind a Waterfall

To falsely attribute praise of Narendra Modi from personalities like Julian Assange etc [ Narendra Modi gets it wrong yet again: WikiLeaks didn't praise him]
The former BJP IT Cell Chief Prodyut Bora put it very well when he quit his post, a position he held since 2004 http://indianexpress.com/article/politics/bjp-national-executive-member-...

“Madness has gripped the party. The desire to win at any cost has destroyed the ethos of the party.”

Now the madness is directed by one Amit Malviya, the BJP IT Cell Chief

The Party, apart from using false hyped up news as positive propaganda for itself, has another branch: abusive accounts, hashtags: India Against Presstitutes, Frustrated Indian and Satyameva….These social media platforms are given currency by television channels like Zee News and India TV,  unashamed propagandists for the ruling regime.

Often the mainstream media can get wrongly influenced by such a concerted paid for campaign:

Example, recent news that Narendra Modi called up an IAS officer at 10 p.m. to get a highway repaired in Tripura. Zee News did it's job. Nothing short of an image building campaign, unverified. All major national news outlets flashed this, it started trending, Indian Express had published a disclaimer: This is unverified news. Senior editor with the Economic Times disproved it.  Finally, when the IAS officer concerned was asked whether he had received any such call from the prime minister, he denied it. Unabashedly, shamefully even, Pushpak Chakroborty of the BJP IT cell commented, “ I really cannot....verify it.”

One way for the reader/viewer to verify news is to google it and find whether or not The Times of India, Hindu, Indian Express, Business Standard have published it. Ninety-nine per cent the news would have been verified. If it is only on Zee News and India TV, 99 per cent it is not just unverified but concocted news, a form of paid news.

False news? Morphed photos? Hate Campaigns? The Party pulls out any or each of these multiple cards depending on where it wants the public mood to go. Dangerous? Indians will only be able to assess this if they first know what this ruling dispensation is up to. Towards this end, this Video with 45,000 views in three days needs to multiply five fold. At least.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick