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GS Paper: Social Media Networks & Internal Security

  • ‘Toolkit’ tweeted by Greta Thunberg

    The Delhi Police filed an FIR on charges of sedition, criminal conspiracy and promoting hatred against the creators of a ‘toolkit’ on farmer protests, which was shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg.

    Q.What do you mean by a social media toolkit? Discuss its potential mis-uses.

    What is a Toolkit?

    • A toolkit is essentially a set of adaptable guidelines or suggestions to get something done. The contents differ depending on what the aim of the toolkit is.
    • For example, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has a toolkit for the implementation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
    • This includes basics such as the guidelines to follow when investigating IPR violations, applicable laws, and definitions of terms such as counterfeit and piracy.
    • In the context of protests, a toolkit usually includes reading material on the context of the protest, news article links and methods of protest (including on social media).

    Why have they gained prominence?

    • While toolkits have been around for decades, the accessibility of social media has brought them into the spotlight over the past few years.
    • References to toolkits for protesters can be found in the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, in the Hong Kong protests of 2019, several climate protests across the world, anti-CAA protests across India.
    • During the Hong Kong protests, toolkits advised participants to wear masks and helmets to avoid being recognised and ways to put out tear gas shells.
    • During the anti-CAA protests, a toolkit suggesting twitter hashtags to use, places to hold protests, and a guide on what to do and carry with you if you are detained by the police were shared on social media.

    Toolkit tweeted by Greta Thunberg

    • The 18-year-old shared a toolkit on Twitter on the anti-farm law protests in India.
    • This came on the heels of singer-businesswoman tweeting a news article on internet curbs near protest sites in and around Delhi.
    • The toolkit tweeted by Thunberg was later deleted, with the activist saying it was being updated by people on the ground in India.
    • The toolkit asked those interested to start a ‘Twitter storm’ to share solidarity photo/video message by social media users.

    It is being speculated that the document was proof that an international conspiracy is being hatched to defame India and the central government over the ongoing farmers’ protest.

    What is the recent apprehension?

    • The police have said that during the inquiry it appears that the toolkit was created by Poetic Justice Foundation.
    • It says the prior action section delineated the action plan for January 26, when violence was seen at several areas as a group of farmers diverted from the set route and started marching towards the Red Fort.
    • The unfolding of events over the past few days, including the violence of 26th January, has revealed copycat execution of the ‘action plan’ detailed in the tool kit.
    • The intention of the creators of the tool kits appeared to be to create disharmony among various social, religious and cultural groups and encourage disaffection and ill-will against the state and the nation at large.

  • [pib] Exercise Desert Knight-21

    Indian Air Force and French Air and Space Force will conduct a bilateral Air exercise, Ex Desert Knight-21 at Air Force Station Jodhpur.

    All-time generic question seeking ‘match the pairs’ can be asked from the news as such.  Click here for more exercises.

    Ex. Desert Knight-21

    • The French side will participate with Rafale, Airbus A-330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT), A-400M Tactical Transport aircraft and approximately 175 personnel.
    • The IAF aircraft participating in the exercise will include Mirage 2000, Su-30 MKI, Rafale, IL-78 Flight Refuelling Aircraft, AWACS and AEW&C aircraft.
    • The exercise marks an important milestone in the series of engagements between the two Air forces.
    • As part of Indo-French defence cooperation, Indian Air Force and French Air and Space Force have held six editions of Air Exercises named ‘Garuda’, the latest being in 2019.
    • Presently, the French detachment for Ex Desert Knight-21 is deployed in Asia as part of their ‘Skyros Deployment’ and will ferry in forces to Air Force Station Jodhpur.

    Why it is special?

    • The exercise is unique as it includes fielding of Rafale aircraft by both sides and is indicative of the growing interaction between the two premiers Air Forces.
    • It will put into practice operational experience gained across terrains and spectrums and endeavour to exchange ideas and best practices to enhance interoperability.

  • Fake News

    The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to explain its “mechanism” against fake news and bigotry on air, and to create one if it did not already exist.

    Discuss how Fake News affects free speech and informed choices of citizens of the country?

    What did the Centre say?

    • The media coverage predominantly has to strike a balanced and neutral perspective.
    • It explained that as a matter of journalistic policy, any section of the media may highlight different events, issues and happenings across the world as per their choice.
    • It was for the viewer to choose from the varied opinions offered by the different media outlets.

    What is Fake News?

    • Fake news is untrue information presented as news. It often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.
    • Once common in the print and digital media, the prevalence of fake news has increased with the rise of social media and messengers.
    • Political polarization, post-truth politics, confirmation bias, and social media have been implicated in the spread of fake news.

    Threats posed

    • Fake news can reduce the impact of real news by competing with it.
    • In India, the spread of fake news has occurred mostly with relation to political and religious matters.
    • However, misinformation related to COVID-19 pandemic was also widely circulated.
    • Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence.

    Countermeasures

    • Internet shutdowns are often used by the government as a way to control social media rumours from spreading.
    • Ideas such as linking Aadhaar to social media accounts have been suggested to the Supreme Court of India by the Attorney General.
    • In some parts of India like Kannur in Kerala, the government conducted fake news classes in government schools.
    • The government is planning to conduct more public-education initiatives to make the population more aware of fake news.
    • Fact-checking has sparked the creation of fact-checking websites in India to counter fake news.

  • Tackling the challenge of Big Tech

    The article discusses the threat posed by the spread of misinformation on the internet and suggests the steps to tackle it.

    Warning for India

    • The U.S.’s experience with the Internet should serve as a stark warning to India.
    • Most Americans now get their news from dubious Internet sources.
    • This resulted in hardening of political stances and the acute polarisation of the average American’s viewpoint.
    • For India, the danger is that like the U.S., such extreme polarisation can happen in a few short years.
    • There are anywhere between 500 million and 700 million people are now newly online, almost all from towns and rural areas.

    Use of targeted algorithm

    • Social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter have become the source of news for the people, but these have no journalistic norms.
    • The spread of the misinformation or news has been greatly enhanced by the highly targeted algorithms that these companies use.
    • They are likely to bombard users with information that serves to reinforce what the algorithm thinks the searcher needs to know.
    • As they familiarise themselves with the Internet, newly online Indians are bound to fall prey to algorithms that social network firms use.

    Steps to control the misinformation on the internet

    • 1) Tech firms are already under fire from all quarters,  nonetheless, we need to act.
    • They are struggling to meet calls to contain the online spread of misinformation and hate speech.
    • 2) Unlike the U.S., India might need to chart its own path by regulating these firm before they proliferate.
    • In the U.S., these issues were not sufficiently legislated for and have existed for over a decade.
    • Free speech is inherent in the Constitution of many democracies, including India’s.
    • This means that new Indian legislation needs to preserve free speech while still applying pressure to make sure that Internet content is filtered for accuracy, and sometimes, plain decency.
    • 3) The third issue is corporate responsibility.
    • Facebook, for instance, has started to address this matter by publishing ‘transparency reports’ and setting up an ‘oversight board’.
    • But we cannot ignore the fact that these numbers reflect judgements that are made behind closed doors.
    • What should be regulatory attempts to influence the transparency are instead being converted into secret corporate processes.
    • We have no way of knowing the extent of biases that may be inherent inside each firm.
    • The fact that their main algorithms target advertising and hyper-personalisation of content makes them further suspect as arbiters of balanced news.
    • This means that those who use social media platforms must pull in another direction to maintain access to a range of sources and views.

    Consider the question “What are the factors responsible for the spread of misinformation on social media and suggest the measures to tackle it.”

    Conclusion

    We need strong intervention now. Else, in addition to the media, which has largely been the responsible fourth estate, we may well witness the creation of an unmanageable fifth estate in the form of Big Tech.

  • Social media and dilemmas associated with it

    Internet has transformed our life like no other technologies. However, it has created several problems as well. The article analyses such issues.

    Examining the role of social media

    • The first reason for the examination of role is the impending US presidential election.
    • Ghosts of Cambridge Analytica, are returning to haunt us again.
    • The second reason is the COVID pandemic.
    • Social media has emerged as a force for good, with effective communication and lockdown entertainment, but also for evil, being used effectively by anti-vaxxers and the #Unmask movement to proselytize their dangerous agenda.

    Understanding the problems associated with social media

    • The big problem with social networks is their business model.
    • The internet was created as a distributed set of computers communicating with one another, and sharing the load of managing the network.
    • This was Web 1.0, and it worked very well. But it had one big problem—there was no way to make money off it.
    •  The internet got monetized, Web 2.0 was born.
    • Come 2020, search and social media advertising has crossed $200 billion, rocketing past print at $65 billion, and TV at $180 billion.
    • This business model has led to a “winner-takes-all” industry structure, creating natural monopolies and centralizing the once-decentralized internet.
    • The emergence of Web 3.0, a revolution that promises to return the internet to users.

    Way forward

    • One principle of the new model is to allow users explicit control of their data, an initiative aided by Europe-like data protection regulation.
    • Another is to grant creators of content—artists, musicians, photographers, —a portion of revenues, instead of platforms taking it all (or most).
    • The technologies that Web 3.0 leverages are newer ones, like blockchains, which are inherently decentralized.
    • They have technology protection against the accumulation of power and data in the hands of a few.
    • Digital currencies enabled by these technologies offer a business model of users paying for services and content with micro-transactions, as an alternative to advertiser-pays.

    Conclusion

    The path to success for these new kinds of democratic networks will be arduous. But a revolution has begun, and it is our revulsion of current models that could relieve us of our social dilemmas.

  • Turkey enacts Social Media Law

    Turkey’s parliament approved a law that gives authorities greater power to regulate social media despite concerns of growing censorship.

    Unregulated social media promotes misinformation, hate speech, defamation, and threats to public order, terrorist incitement, bullying, and anti-national activities.

    Turkey: The forerunner of cyber policing

    • Turkey leads the world in removal requests to Twitter, with more than 6,000 demands in the first half of 2019.
    • More than 408,000 websites are blocked in Turkey, according to The Freedom of Expression Association.
    • Online encyclopedia Wikipedia was blocked for nearly three years before Turkey’s top court ruled that the ban violated the right to freedom of expression and ordered it unblocked.
    • The country also has one of the world’s highest rates of imprisoned journalists, many of whom were arrested in a crackdown following a failed coup in 2016.

    Features of the Law:

    1) Appointing representatives:

    • The law requires major social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter to keep representative offices in Turkey to deal with complaints against content on their platforms.
    • If the social media company refuses to designate an official representative, the legislation mandates steep fines, advertising bans and bandwidth reductions.

    2) Bandwidth reductions

    • Bandwidth reductions mean social media networks would be too slow to use.
    • With a court ruling, bandwidth would be reduced by 50% and then by 50% to 90%.

    3) Privacy protection

    • The representative will be tasked with responding to individual requests to take down content violating privacy and personal rights within 48 hours or to provide grounds for rejection.
    • The company would be held liable for damages if the content is not removed or blocked within 24 hours.

    4) Data storage

    • A most alarming feature of the new legislation is that SM companies would require social media providers to store user data in Turkey.
    • The government says the legislation was needed to combat cybercrime and protect users.
    • This would be used to remove posts that contain cyberbullying and insults against women.

    Turkey seems to have given an attempt to regulate social media amidst the chaos. It lags on various fronts, making it realizable for India not to go hastily for such a regulation.

    Concerns over the law

    • Hundreds of people have been investigated and some arrested over social media posts.
    • The opposition is pointing that the law would further limit freedom of expression in a country where the media is already under tight government control and dozens of journalists are in jail.

  • Information war

    Information war waged against India from across the border needs consideration. Three factors have triggered the war in the realm of information. This article examines the way in which it is perpetrated.

    Factors

    •  Following three triggers are responsible for Pakistan’s information war.
    • 1) The Balakot attack of February 2019.
    • Balakot demolished Pakistan’s presumed nuclear equivalence that guaranteed that India would not retaliate against terrorist attacks
    • 2) The return of the BJP government in the May 2019 elections-which signalled that India would follow aggressive muscular policy.
    • 3) The August 2019 revision of Article 370.
    • The Article 370 decision demolished the centrepiece of Pakistan’s nationalism build on Kashmir.
    • The move also raised apprehensions about India’s plans for Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
    • These developments have forced it to shift the emphasis of its anti-India strategy from fomenting terrorism supported by an information war component to an information war supported by terrorism.

    How the information war is waged

    • The ISI and the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) two main instruments for the furtherance of this policy.
    • The ISPR has, over the years, recruited thousands of youth, trained them in the mechanics of social media and used them to project anti-India themes.
    • The core Pakistani objective is to demolish “Brand India” by attacking its key components — an inclusive and secular society, democratic polity, decisive government, a developing economic powerhouse and strong foreign policy.
    • The expectation is that such a strategy would adversely impact India’s secular and democratic credentials, scare foreign investment and lead to questions about its international image.
    • The key platforms for this strategy are Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook.
    • A large number of fake social media accounts, especially on Twitter, have been created.
    • The use of handles with phoney Middle Eastern identities is the latest addition to its bag of tricks.

    Themes of information war

    • Internal developments and dissent in India have been manipulated, packaged and used to develop a narrative damaging India’s social fabric.
    • On J&K, the key themes are: Kashmir is a “disputed territory” awaiting solution under the UN resolutions; India needs to talk to Pakistan to resolve the issue and since India refuses to talk, there must be international intervention, the Indian Army is violating the human rights of Kashmiris.

    Consider the question “Internet has made waging information war easier. Examine the threat posed by the information war to Indian polity. Suggest the measures to contain the threat emanating from the information war.”

    Conclusion

    Even though the Indian polity is strong, such persistent venomous attacks can temporarily damage our social fabric. We must not allow ourselves, wittingly or unwittingly, to fall prey to such machinations to polarise society, even temporarily.

  • BlackRock Android Malware

    Various security firms have alerted about new malware, called BlackRock.

    Try this question from CSP 2018:

    Q.The terms ‘WannaCry, Petya, Eternal Blue’ sometimes mentioned news recently are related to

    (a) Exoplanets

    (b) Cryptocurrency

    (c) Cyberattacks

    (d) Mini satellites

    BlackRock

    • BlackRock isn’t exactly a new malware. In fact, it is based on the leaked source code of the Xeres malware, itself derived from a malware called LokiBot.
    • The only big difference between BlackRock and other Android banking trojans is that it can target more apps than previous malwares.

    How does it work?

    • BlackRock works like most Android malware. Once installed on a phone, it monitors the targeted app.
    • When the user enters the login and/or credit card details, the malware sends the information to a server.
    • BlackRock uses the phone’s Accessibility feature and then uses an Android DPC (device policy controller) to provide access to other permissions.
    • It can be used to send and steal SMS messages, hide notifications, keylogging, AV detection, and much more.

    Threats posed

    • The new malware can steal information like passwords and credit card information from about 377 smartphone applications, including Amazon, Facebook, and Gmail.
    • It is so powerful that it makes antivirus applications useless.

  • World Drug Report: India in top five list

    According to the latest World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the fourth highest seizure of opium in 2018 was reported from India, after Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    Drug seizures in India and neighbourhood

    • The maximum of 644 tonnes of opium was seized in Iran, followed by 27 tonnes in Afghanistan and 19 tonnes in Pakistan.
    • In India, the figure stood at four tonnes in 2018.

    Heroin

    • Heroin is manufactured from the morphine extracted from the seed pod of opium poppy plants.
    • Iran reported the highest seizure of heroin (25 tonnes), followed by Turkey, United States, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
    • India was at the 12th position in the world.

    Global pattern

    • 97% of the total global production of opium in the past five years came from only three countries.
    • About 84% of the total opium was produced in Afghanistan, from where it is supplied to neighbouring countries, Europe, west Asia, south Asia and Africa.
    • From Myanmar, which accounts for 7% of the global opium production, and Laos, where 1% of the opium is produced, it is supplied to east and south-east Asia and Oceania.
    • Mexico accounts for 6% of the global opium production, while Colombia and Guatemala account for less than 1% of global production.

    Some other details

    • The report said that the global area under opium poppy cultivation declined for the second year in a row in 2019.
    • It went down by 17% in 2018 and by 30% in 2019.
    • Despite the decline in cultivation, opium production remained stable in 2019, with higher yields reported in the main opium production areas.
    • Quantities of seized opiates remained concentrated in Asia, notably in south-west Asia (70%).
    • Asia is host to more than 90% of global illicit opium production.
    • Also, it is the world’s largest consumption market for opiates and also accounts for almost 80% of all opiates seized worldwide in 2018.

    Consider the question asked in 2018 “India’s proximity to two of the world’s biggest illicit opium-growing states has enhanced her internal security concerns. Explain the linkages between drug trafficking and other illicit activities such as gunrunning, money laundering and human trafficking. What countermeasures should be taken to prevent the same?”

  • Terrorism and its ideologies

    Pakistan is a unique country in the sense that it is both a victim and the perpetrator of terrorism. This article explains the situations which made Pakistan home to the terrorism. So, why some terrorist organisations turned against Pakistan? What are the ideologies followed by various terrorist organisation and how it makes a difference in their functioning? Read to know…

    Terrorism paradox of Pakistan: Both Victim and perpetrator

    • This Terrorism paradox can be traced to the deliberate policy of the Pakistani state to create and foster terrorist groups in order to engage in low-intensity warfare with its neighbours.
    • Pakistan first operationalised this strategy in regard to Afghanistan in 1973.
    • And intensified it with the cooperation of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia after the Marxist coup of 1978 after which USSR entered Afghanistan.

    Soviet withdrawal and rise in insurgency in Kashmir

    • The Soviet withdrawal in 1989 left the Pakistani military with a large surplus of Islamist fighters that it had trained and armed.
    • Islamabad decided to use this “asset” to intensify the insurgency in the Kashmir Valley.

    Radicalisation of Pakistani population

    • The decade-long Afghan “jihad” in Afghanistan had also radicalised a substantial segment of the Pakistani population.
    • Radicalisation was intense in the North-West Frontier Province and Punjab.
    • Sectarian divisions were also on the rise not only between Sunnis and Shias but also among various Sunni sects.
    • The division was intense between two Sunni sects-the puritanical Deobandis and the more syncretic and Sufi-oriented Barelvis.
    • In the process, a number of homegrown terrorist groups emerged that the Pakistan Army co-opted for its use in Kashmir and the rest of India.
    • But, it soon became clear that Pakistan had created a set of Frankenstein’s monsters some of whom turned against their creator.
    • The Musharraf government, under American pressure, decided to collaborate with the latter in the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
    • This resulted in some of the terrorist organisation turning against Pakistan.

    Monsters who don’t spare even its creator

    • The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has ideological affinity with the Afghan Taliban.
    • The TTP and its affiliates have fought pitched battles with the Pakistan Army in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and parts of the NWFP.
    • Also, the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has not hesitated to launch terrorist attacks on targets within Pakistan as well, especially against the Shias and Sufi shrines.

    Did all terrorist organisation turn against Pakistan?

    • No!
    • Consider the case of ‘loyalist’ LeT.
    • Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), is a classic example of a “loyalist” terrorist organisation that has played by the rules set by the Pakistani military.
    • It only launches attacks on targets outside Pakistan, primarily in India.
    • As the evidence in the case of the Mumbai carnage of 2008 clearly indicates LeT operations are coordinated with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
    • ISI provides it with intelligence and logistical support in addition to identifying specific targets.
    • This is why the LeT and its front organisations have continued to receive the military’s patronage and unstinting support.
    • Consequently, its leader, Hafiz Saeed, was until recently provided protection by the Pakistani state.

    Ideological differences

    • Both the LeT and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) have been engaged in attacks on Indian targets identified by Pakistan’s ISI.
    • The difference between LeT and JeM lies in the fact that while the LeT is more pragmatic and less ideological.
    • The JeM is highly ideological and sectarian.
    • JeM draws its ideological inspiration from a very extreme form of Deobandi puritanism.
    • That extreme form considers all those who do not believe in its philosophy beyond the pale of Islam.
    • For many JeM diehards, these include not only Shias and Barelvis but also the Pakistani state and the Pakistani military.
    • LeT on the other hand does not consider Muslims of different theological orientations as non-believers and therefore legitimate targets of attack.
    • This relatively “liberal” interpretation is related to the fact that LeT draws its ideological inspiration from the sect called the Ahl-e-Hadis, which composes only a small proportion of Pakistan’s Muslim population and cannot afford to engage in sectarian conflict.
    • Moreover, it draws its membership from different Muslim sects including the Sufi-oriented Barelvis and the puritanical Deobandis.
    • Both these factors drive LeT toward greater tolerance in sectarian terms and to eschew intra-Islamic theological battles.
    • Its primary goals are political; above all, driving India out of Kashmir.
    • This jells well with the objectives of the Pakistani military and makes LeT and Hafiz Saeed, favourites of the Pakistani establishment.

    Consider the question asked by UPSC in 2017-“The scourge of terrorism is a grave challenge to national security. What solution do you suggest to curb this growing menace? What are the major sources of terrorist funding?

    Conclusion

    The fact that using terrorist outfits for state objectives is a highly risky business whose blowback cannot be predicted and can have very negative consequences for the stability of the state itself.