ANS : Meta has announced the removal of several accounts, pages, and groups on Instagram that targeted the Sikh community in multiple countries, including India, Australia, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Nigeria. The network responsible for these activities is reportedly based in China, according to Meta’s latest report.
The operation employed compromised and fake accounts to impersonate Sikhs, post content, and manage Pages and Groups, as detailed in the report. Additionally, the network created a fictitious activist movement called “Operation K,” which called for pro-Sikh protests.
“We detected and eliminated this activity early, preventing it from establishing a following within authentic communities,” the report stated.
The network’s posts were primarily in English and Hindi and included images “likely manipulated by photo editing tools or generated by artificial intelligence.” The flagged content covered topics such as floods in the Punjab region, the global Sikh community, the pro-Khalistan movement, the killing of terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, and criticisms of the Indian government.
In a related development, a Microsoft Threat Analysis team earlier warned that China is likely to create and amplify AI-generated content to further its interests during major global elections, particularly in India and the US.
According to Microsoft, China is using fake social media accounts to poll voters on divisive issues, aiming to sow discord and potentially influence election outcomes.