Opposition Parties demand parliamentary probe into Tek Fog app

Tags: National News

Reacting to a news report that Tek Fog app is being used to spread misinformation, make hate speeches and manipulate social media trends, opposition parties demanded the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs  to take up the matter as such apps posed “severe danger” to national security. Separately, they also urged the Supreme Court to take note of news report on Tek Fog app, and have it examined by the expert panel that’s already looking into the alleged use of the Pegasus spyware on some Indian citizens.

What is Tek Fog App

According to “The Wire” Tek Fog is an application software used by the information technology cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party as part of their social media campaigning to spread propaganda. 

• Tek Fog was used to manage large number of inauthentic accounts on social media. 
• Tek Fog was capable of hacking inactive WhatsApp accounts in order to mass message their contacts with propaganda messages, while impersonating the account owner. 
• The App can allow its users to take control of the trends on the social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by 'auto tweeting' and 'auto sharing' tweets and posts. 
• The App has a cloud database where citizens store information about their age, occupation, religion, gender, political inclinations, and other physical attributes.
• The app also allows the user to completely delete all the evidence of the past activities they might have performed using the App