Pakistan’s hand in campaign against Arshdeep Singh using ‘Khalistan’ & ‘ISIagent’ proven
Pakistani users proliferated the hate messages against Arshdeep Singh, as soon as he dropped a catch off the Pakistani batsman, Asif Ali
Pakistani users proliferated the hate messages against bowler Arshdeep Singh and were also involved in tampering with his Wikipedia page, as soon as he dropped a catch off the Pakistani batsman, Asif Ali, in the crucial India – Pakistan match of the Asia Cup 2022. This has been confirmed in research by Digital Forensics Research and Analytics Center (DFRAC).
Significantly, the independent media agency has in the past also claimed to have busted the information warfare conspiracy by Pakistani social media users against India, including its hate agenda on Kashmir; Hijab controversy and also the campaign against Mohammad Shami after India’s defeat against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup in October 2021.
Pakistan trolls Arshdeep Singh
According to DFRAC findings, a user identified as Usman was the first to tweet on #Arshdeepsingh with the keyword ‘Khalistan’ on September 4 at 11:15 pm and his account has been traced to Pakistan.
An organised campaign was designed to malign Arshdeep Singh post the match and as a part of the plan, to make it viral on Twitter, over 20,734 accounts that tweeted with #ArshdeepSingh and #Khalistani were created in 2022 i.e about 97.7 per cent of the overall accounts that tweeted on these Hashtags originated from Pakistan. Further analysis of about 20,000 accounts revealed that over 100 accounts were created on September 5 alone, a day after the match. These accounts carried out a fierce tweet activity with the said Hashtags.
Pakistan-based accounts calling Arshdeep a Khalistani
A journalist W S Khan based in Pakistan tweeted, “Arshdeep is clearly part of the Pakistan-backed Khalistan movement.
Tampering of Arshdeep Singh’s Wikipedia page
Arshdeep was not only called a Khalistani but also an ISI agent. Additionally, one of the Pakistani users tampered with Singh’s page and replaced India with Khalistan. According to the information gathered by DFRAC, the Wikipedia page was edited by an individual whose IP address – 39.41.171.125 was traced back to Pakistan’s Punjab province and the name of the Internet Service provider is Pakistan Telecom.
Moreover, the Indian government has also taken a tough stance in the matter and has asked for a response from Wikipedia authorities in the matter.
It’s important to note, that as soon as India lost the match against Pakistan #ArshdeepSingh started trending on Twitter with over 27,000 tweets. Around 4,500 Tweets were trading with the #Khalistani
