Cyber Militia - Troll Army in New Age by BJP

[LuvNTR]

 

Trolling for Faith and Modi

Sitting cross-legged on a charpoy, an Indian day bed, Mahaveer Prasad Khileri taps on his laptop, his face lit by the screen and a single bulb hanging from the ceiling of his dirt-walled house. He uses his computer and two smartphones to advocate on social media for an organization dedicated to the well-being of cows, which are sacred to Hindus. Khileri’s work serves as a penance of sorts for a time when his deep faith and social media skills found a more toxic expression. He’s a former troll for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or the BJP. “At that time, poison was in my mind,” he said.

Khileri was recruited by two acquaintances into the party’s social media operation in February 2014, just as Modi was racing to become India's next prime minister. He was given eight cell phones and ID’s for six different Facebook identities, he recalled in an interview in his home village of Jogaliya. He worked 18-hour days, toggling between legitimate campaign work and trolling of opponents and journalists, he said. When Modi won, the operation evolved as well, transitioning to a tool supporting Modi’s government.

Khileri worked in what the BJP calls its ‘IT Cell,’ which effectively operated as an ad hoc troll farm, he said. The development of the cell in the world's largest democracy occurred around the same time that American authorities believe Russia began using such techniques to influence the 2016 presidential election. The researchers contributing to the institute and Google reports found similar timing in different countries and under various circumstances.

Mahaveer Prasad Khileri, a former troll for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, at his home in Jogaliya, India in May 2018. SOURCE: BIBHUDATTA PRADHAN OF BLOOMBERG NEWS

 

According to Khileri, the Indian version of the trolling toolkit included strategies meant to inflame sectarian differences, malign the Muslim minority and portray Modi as savior of the Hindus. Supervisors would set themes for the day and specify targets to attack. Khileri and 300 other paid trolls would create memes or cut-and-paste Twitter posts that were sent to WhatsApp groups of tens of thousands of party loyalists. Their reposts sent hashtags viral in minutes.

“Muslims slaughter cows, so we’d tell them, ‘When Modi comes, we will slaughter you,’” Khileri recalled. “We’d tell Hindus: ‘If you don’t vote for Modi, then Muslims will destroy you.’”

The former head of BJP’s IT CELL, Arvind Gupta, tweeted in December 2016 that neither the party nor the cell has ever encouraged trolling and that online support for the party comes from a voluntary, grass-roots movement. The current head of the cell, Amit Malviya, said he would comment only after seeing evidence that Khileri was a member of it. Khileri said he eventually quit the cell—which paid its members in cash and left no paper trail—after he grew increasingly uncomfortable with the power it amassed.

“At any time, they can control the situation of India. The troll army can call a nationwide strike, shut down the country,'' he said. “They are able to push for fights between communities, to create communal tension or destroy communal harmony.”

In her book I am a Troll , Indian journalist Swati Chaturvedi documents how the coutnries ruling party , the BJP, allegedly created it's 'IT Cell' to smear and threaten opponents online. She says the cell frequently targets women and that it directed a campaign against NDTV Reporter that included repeated rapes and death threats.

Bloomberg Special Edition Research on Troll Army used by politicians.

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2018-government-sponsored-cyber-militia-cookbook/