#LiberateBalochistan vs #Liberate Khalistan: How twitterati reacts in no-man’s land

July 12, 2015

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By NewsGram Staff Writer

The conflict of Balochistan has not yet turned up explicitly in International media’s coverage and continues to remain an unattended issue. “Balochistan’s long held demands for increased autonomy have fallen to deaf ears over the past half century.” [1]

While Balochistan continues to remain a comparatively poor area in spite having rich natural resources, the human rights violation cases in the conflicted area by Pakistan army have surfaced. Among many such attempts, #LiberateBalochistan was trending on Twitter.

When NewsGram researched the tweets (and the handles), the results were quite interesting. Many of the handles supporting Balochistan were pro-Modi.

NewsGram brings to you a series of tweets with #LiberateBalochistan.

Dear Balochs After “India With Balochistan”, We are going to trend #LiberateBalochistan tomorrow, Sunday at 10 am (India Time Zone) ~ India

— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) July 11, 2015

It is my religious duty to support my Balochi brothers and sisters. They have protected Mata Hingalaj temple for ages #LiberateBalochistan — संदीप सारस्वत #HDL (@saraswati_nadi) July 12, 2015

An independent Balochistan is a permanent deterrent to religious extremism in the region & it will prove itself if u #LiberateBalochistan — Archen Baloch (@ArchenBaloch) July 12, 2015

Balochistan being rich in natural resources continues to be d most backward of all d provinces in Porkistan. #LiberateBalochistan

— Wilson D’mello (@wdmello) July 12, 2015

Though India has dismissed the allegations about its role in Balochistan, the ongoing trend clearly reflects the twitterati extending its support to the conflicted region. While there were tweets flooding in India with #LiberateBalochistan, some stir was observed among Pakistani twitterati with #LiberateKhalistan.

#LiberateBalochistan trending in India and #LiberateKhalistan trending in Pakistan. Batman v Superman trending in both countries.

— Scotchy Shashtri (@scotchism) July 12, 2015

So all those who wanna liberate #Balochistan, tell me how it feels to #LiberateKhalistan? pic.twitter.com/4gzTx35Msv

— Aabi kosar (@Aabekosar) July 12, 2015

One Retweet = One Salute To our Pak Army as they crushed BLA and RAW from our Soil. #LiberateKhalistan pic.twitter.com/puP1Vjhs9L

— Ramiz Raja (@RamizRaja92) July 12, 2015

Burnol ki zarorat to #India ko hai because #LiberateKhalistan is trending on top in Pakistan … @HDLindiaOrg . 😉

— Arslan Javaid (@Being__Arslan) July 12, 2015

This is how the twitterati of both the countries have reacted to the internal problems. Instead of fighting for their own cause, it is disturbing to observe this approach among the people of the two nations.

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Copyright 2015 NewsGram

Microblogging Site Twitter Releases Tweets Linked to Russia, Iran

"We may also release incremental additions to existing datasets if we believe the additional information could materially impact research findings," Twitter said

NewsGram Desk

October 21, 2018

With the goal of improving understanding of how foreign influence campings operate on Twitter, the microblogging site has now released massive datasets of accounts linked to potential influence campaigns originating in Russia and Iran.

These large datasets released this week comprise 3,841 accounts affiliated with the Internet Research Agency (IRA), originating in Russia, and 770 other accounts, potentially originating in Iran.

Totalling over 360 gigabytes – including more than 10 million Tweets and more than 2 million images, GIFs, videos, and Periscope broadcasts ?the data store provides a picture of how state-sponsored agencies have used the Twitter platform, technology news website Ars Technica reported on Friday.

IRA allegedly ran information campaigns on several social media platforms to undermine the political process in the 2016 US presidential election.

With Twitter coming under scrutiny for its failure to stop the spread of misinformation during the election, the microblogging site, earlier this year, committed to the US Congress and the public to provide regular updates and information regarding its investigation into foreign interference in political conversations on Twitter.

Since that time, Twitter has shared examples of these types of content posted on Twitter by IRA and provided the public with a direct notice if they interacted with these accounts.

In August this year, Twitter also disclosed details of another attempted influence campaign it identified as potentially located within Iran.

The datasets released this week are aimed at enabling independent academic research and investigation into the nature of foreign influence campaigns, Twitter said.

“We are committed to understanding how bad-faith actors use our services. We will continue to proactively combat nefarious attempts to undermine the integrity of Twitter, while partnering with civil society, government, our industry peers, and researchers to improve our collective understanding of coordinated attempts to interfere in the public conversation,” Twitter said.

A preliminary look at the data by Ars Technica revealed that a common tactic used by the IRA was to create “local news” accounts for major US cities, seeding them with posts linking to local news outlets.

The accounts, such as “Atlanta Online,” “Baltimore Online,” “Baton Rouge Voice,” “Chicago Daily News,” and “Dallas Top News” would also include tweet-length news headlines with no link, the report said.

Also Read- Habitability Of Surrounding Planets Affected By Super Flares Of Red Dwarfs: NASA

Twitter said if it identifies additional attempted information operations on Twitter in the future, it will release similar datasets in a timely fashion after completing its investigations.

“We may also release incremental additions to existing datasets if we believe the additional information could materially impact research findings,” Twitter said. (IANS)