New Delhi: Technology developed and deployed by political operatives working to further the interests of India's ruling party appears to have given them the ability to add script to the URLs of published news stories at mainstream platforms in order to redirect unsuspecting readers to fake news and also hack into and take over WhatsApp accounts, potentially exposing millions of Indians to the risk of identity theft.

Since the aim of the exercise is to use inactive hacked accounts to seed disinformation and fake news, vulnerable WhatsApp users also face potential legal liability in the event that criminal cases are filed relating to objectionable content simulated as emanating from their phone numbers.

Last week, The Wire published the first part of its 20-month-long investigation into the secret 'Tek Fog' app being used by cyber operatives to manipulate social media trends in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and target critics of the Narendra Modi government.

We explained the four features that make Tek Fog so unique and dangerous – (1) hijacking Twitter and Facebook trends, (2) phishing and capturing inactive WhatsApp accounts, (3) creating and deploying a highly granular database of citizens for targeted harassment, and (4) the possibility that its use is part of a political-corporate nexus linking the BJP to large tech players and platforms. Since the publication of our story, two of the companies which The Wire's source had named as having links to the use of Tek...

Read Full Story: https://thewire.in/tekfog/en/2.html