We are about to witness an
incredible coincidence. The historic moment of the 2024 Lok Sabha election
marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's
‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. The famous book is not unknown to anyone today. On the
contrary, almost all conscious citizens have now come to realize from their
everyday experience what ‘The Ministry of Truth’ really is! Coincidentally, in
2019, Dorian Lynskey wrote a book, ‘The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of
George Orwell's 1984’ in which he traveled back in time and showed how the idea
of such a ministry was instilled in Orwell's mind.
In 2022, it is as if we are standing
in front of such a virtual ministry whose job is to constantly trade lies and
in various ways propagate lies among the people. This January, The Wire,
after a two-year investigation, revealed that Tek Fog, a secret app run
by the BJP, was used for exactly that purpose. This secret app can create and
delete numerous Twitter-Facebook accounts by one click. Not only that but also
with this app, any topic can be trended by lots of tweets, everything from
harassing opposition ideologues to death threats can be offered and also
hijacking unused Whatsapp accounts to automate hate is possible. This app is
like a Brahmastra for spreading violence and provocative work. And once
the desired work is done, all the accounts can be deleted so that no trace of
any misconduct remains. Derek O'Brien has been vocal about this.
By epoch-making modernity we have to
understand this current situation. Because we have entered the 21st
century’s technology-dependent cyber world, where the game of stripping the
truth is being organized on the battlefield of digital politics, not
geopolitics. Here, just as history is affecting fiction, so is fiction becoming
history. The real challenge here is to keep your eyes and ears open to protect
the power to think freely. It should be remembered that the world has been
ruled by different types of politics in different countries for ages and in all
the regimes, only the life of the common man has been ruined due to the
ideological turmoil of the rulers. Man has witnessed how systematically
honesty, decency, fairness, memory, history, clarity, privacy, discretion and
feelings of love have been destroyed from his life and how political
opportunism has changed morality, unity, language and truth in favor of its own
interests. He has survived the days of utopia, super-state, dictatorship,
imprisonment, propaganda, abuses of technology, military power, media language,
culture-class-gender based inequality and the dark clouds of dystopia. Spent
cursed nights of panic. Fought for liberation, freedom and democracy which is
still going on.
In that order, another history has
started in India since 2014. Just as many have found similarities with
Orwellian dystopia with this, so too have many found the scent of utopia. There
are people living here believing in different ideologies like socialist,
conservative, anarchist, liberal etc. and everyone is explaining the phenomenon
of ‘Tek Fog’ in their own way. But will we ordinary people be included
in any group to understand this issue? Maybe not. That’s why when it comes to ‘The
Wire’ revealing the ‘Tek Fog’, the public need to cross check it.
Many liberal and leftist intellectuals will speak in favor of this veil, but
that does not mean that there is no ambiguity, no doubt in question.
Yes, all the conscious citizens know
that there can be such an app and the BJP has all the intention, need, money
and people to make it. But despite all this, is it possible to be so sure about
the existence of ‘Tek Fog’? Though there is a possibility that the BJP
may be involved in such a conspiracy, as far as the ‘Tek Fog’ leak is
concerned, no one should be so thought-paralyzed by accepting ‘The Wire’s
claimed existence of the app without verification. It should be remembered that
anyone can have the potential to commit crime, but he/she cannot be found
guilty until proven guilty. There is no denying that such an app can exist. But
did ‘The Wire’ present any solid evidence as to whether it actually
existed? Probably not. They have provided some screenshots sent by their source
and claim this only on the basis of 32 accounts and 100 trending topics. There
is no question about the sincerity of their intentions but there are some
doubts and questions regarding their demands which have been raised by Samarth
Bansal.
According to the claim, if, not
leaving a trace means deleting all the accounts or using a private network,
then there arises two doubts – firstly, if an app can breach the security
system of world’s giant technologists for myriad of accounts with a single click,
then it is the time to appreciate that India has been crowned the digital
emperor and second, the use of API for private apps comes into play when it
comes to the involvement of organizations like ‘Sharechat’. ‘The
Wire’ claimed that users of ‘Tek Fog’ app have stored a huge
database of people from various fields. They also blame 18% of
propaganda-tweets on the ‘Tek Fog’ app. But the question is, on the
basis of only 32 accounts and 100 trending topics, how can the demand for the
existence of thousands or millions of accounts be reached? Also if the total
number is not known, it is doubtful that how and on what basis this percentage
is being calculated. Whether ‘Tek Fog’ is an app or an idea or a concept
is not clear. They say it is a matter of MetaWorld, and its users may
have different versions. ‘The Wire’ has left a terrible fog here.
Leaving aside all that, if we assume that the claims of ‘The Wire’ are
all true, then also one last doubt remains. If they are asked if they have seen
all these activities with their own eyes or have used the app to verify the
truth? We don't get any definite answer. They just say that a disgruntled BJP
IT cell worker who was involved in these activities told ‘The Wire’
about these issues and that’s it.
The point now is that there may be a
BJP-backed ‘Tek Fog’ but we need to be a little more certain about
whether it exists at all. Right now, The Wire's claim cannot be accepted
without question. But if their claim is further substantiated by strong
potential evidence, it goes without saying that India has entered an era of
terrible darkness. People need to be aware. Because where reality changes into
digital satire, prediction, caution, political ideology, science fiction,
dreaming, espionage thriller, psychological horror, nightmares, postmodern
existentialism with a single click, it is like entering a tunnel of
insurmountable suffering. When the only thing that keeps popping up in
everyone's ears is the saying, ‘No one is free in this world, no one is safe.
It's impossible to be honest and survive at the same time', then whatever the
inclination of the mind is, everything must be judged under the light of doubt.
Otherwise, to get rid of one tunnel, one has to remain dependent on the other
tunnel, the light will never be touched.
References:
- https://thewire.in/tekfog/en/1.html
- https://thewire.in/tekfog/en/2.html
- https://thewire.in/tekfog/en/3.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tek_Fog
- https://www.samarthbansal.com/the-wires-tek-fog-investigation-futile-search-for-evidence/
- Others.
