LAHORE: PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said another “lie” of Imran Khan has been unveiled after the government claimed to have uncovered trends on Twitter initiated through accounts of PTI supporters.
“Imported government not acceptable (imported hukumat na manzoor)” has been trending for several days after Imran Khan was voted out of power on April 10 through the no-confidence motion. However, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb revealed that the top trend was being run through bots.
“Another IK lie exposed, another conspiracy unveiled,” Maryam said in a tweet. She added, “Turns out that the slander campaigns against state institutions and lies about international conspiracy were churned out and spread by no more than a handful of people employing hundreds of fake accounts and bots.”
Maryam said Imran Khan led the Twitter campaign and claimed the government had “tracked down” the criminal ring from PTI. “More facts will surface in the coming days. No lie will save you Now!”
Another IK lie exposed, another Conspiracy unveiled. Turns out that the slander campaigns against State institutions & lies about international conspiracy were churned out & spread by no more than a handful of people employing hundreds of fake accounts & BOTS.
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) April 18, 2022
All the activity on this trend is entirely coordinated — not organic. All tweets, comments, replies, likes go up and down together, generated by automated bots. PTI is using bot nets to generate coordinated and spam activity to artificially boost their trends on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/G0mpuH6LsU
— Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) April 18, 2022
In a press conference, Marriyum Aurangzeb said the PTI was running trends to malign state institutions, build a false narrative, and mislead the people of Pakistan.
The PML-N spokesperson said the trends instigated hate speech and online violence. In a day, the trend was initiated by 924 Twitter handles, while only 709 of these accounts were active ones. Of the 924 Twitter handles, 532 Twitter accounts were bots. she said.
Aurangzeb said the data, obtained from Twitter, showed that 177 human accounts were being operated, while there were only 33 original accounts.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has also arrested dozens of people for being involved in social media campaigns against state institutions.
