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Sharp increase in fake profiles during and after Elections

December 8, 2018 5:10 pm

Sharp increase in fake profiles during and after Elections

There was a sharp increase in the number of fake profiles leading up to the General Elections and even during post-election period.

This was revealed by Deputy Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu while speaking on Trolling Hunting in the 21st Century at the Attorney General’s Conference.

Tudravu says the sheer volume of fake news on social media is high and it has become a real challenge for them to diffuse and counter lies that are spread on social media.

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There was a sharp increase in the number of fake profiles and a new trend emerged of fake news media pages where the administrations went to great lengths to discredit political parties, political candidates and known officials involved in the election process. What is interesting however is the high level of interaction on the deceptive content even after we or concerned authorities had issued official statements refuting the fake news on social media.”

He stresses that the issue of fake news particularly on social media is impacting their operations.

Tudravu says that their cybercrime unit with their intelligence team usually assess and flag posts that could have a real impact on the security landscapes.

He adds they have even gone to the extent of requesting Facebook administrators through their established liaison counterparts based in Singapore and Australia to remove the pages or posts.