New Delhi: After Islamist organisation Popular Front of India (PFI) was temporarily banned for a period of five years in September last year, a new report finds that the outfit’s social media accounts continue to be operated via VPN within India and by those who have access to their accounts outside the country.
However, the report released Wednesday by UK-based AI firm Logically says that since the ban, the volume of PFI’s “divisive content” on social media has “reduced drastically”.
Further, the report titled Attempting to Radicalize Indian Muslims: Investigating the Online Propaganda of the Popular Front of India, claims the PFI represents a major threat to India’s national security and civil society.
According to Logically, a key narrative the PFI seems to be pushing on social media relates to allegations that the Indian government is “fascist” and is engaging in “genocide” against the country’s Muslim population.
It is essential to note that this study only assesses the PFI’s activity on social media and does not provide an effective medium to understand the groups’ on-ground presence. As the report states, “there is no way to ascertain its on-ground presence and reach,” via the used methodology. Further details of the research, examples, and methodology will be released on Friday, 17 March, Logically has said.
PFI’s narrative and campaigns on social media, the report alleges, work to accentuate religious fault lines in the country. This, according to the researchers at Logically, also creates the space for further radical elements to operate in India.
“Logically’s analysis of the social media activity of the PFI network reveals that the banning and arrest of PFI’s affiliated leaders led to support from international radical organizations like the Party of Islamic renewal led by Professor Al-Massari, an Al Qaeda sympathizer and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS),” reads a statement by the AI firm.
The international supporters of the organisation have called for the ban to be ignored, the report says, adding that they have campaigned for the PFI to convert themselves into a ‘revolutionary’ organisation that finances itself via cryptocurrencies.
To assess the PFI’s functioning and online campaigns, Logically studied the social media accounts of PFI and its affiliates. These included monitoring and mining data from accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, and YouTube.
The data that was garnered was then compressed and assessed by Logically’s researchers who then determined the key narratives that PFI used to gain support from those who follow their accounts on these social media platforms. However, the report doesn’t give details of the various narratives.
Within this data, Logically found a spate of accounts that are common to the ecosystem: “In a sample set of 50,000 followers, the Twitter accounts of The Campus Front of India (the PFI’s student wing), the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Popular Front of India share over 11,000 common followers.”
“This 20%+ overlap is a significant number and is indicative of the online influence of the radical content targeted to the domestic Indian Muslim population,” it adds.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also Read: PFI declared ‘unlawful’ for 5 yrs by MHA, found to have ‘links with global terror organisations’