Fake Twitter handle of Army Chief blocked

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 18

In what seems to be a “psychological warfare” from the adversaries, several fake Twitter handles have been set up to pose as Indian Army’s senior Generals, including Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, all aimed at dishing out fake information on social media.

All of these accounts, which sprung up in August and September, have been taken down by Twitter in the past one week. It is suspected that such accounts had been set up as part of the misinformation campaign directed from Pakistan.

Besides that of the Army Chief, such fake accounts had been set up to pose as Lt Gen D Anbu, the Vice Chief of the Army who retired in August this year. Another account carried the image of Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, the present Northern Army Commander, and claimed to be his personal account. Another account was in the name of Lt Gen BS Negi, who retired as Central Army Commander last year. Another account was in the name of Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia (retd), a former Director General Military Operation. General Bhatia had reported the account on his own to the Twitter for action.

Each of these accounts is made to look like 'real', making it tough for an average person to pick out if it's fake. To make it look genuine, each of accounts had the full decorations of the officers and the introduction on Twitter profile section ending with ‘Jai Hind’, the greeting which the Army officers use to close a speech.

Officially, the Army’s social media policy allows officers to keep a social media account but they cannot have a profile picture that shows them in uniform.