The Ministry of Truth and ‘Tek Fog’ App

 

We are about to witness an incredible coincidence. The historic moment of the 2024 Lok Sabha election marks the 75^th 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 21^st 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: 

1. https://thewire.in/tekfog/en/1.html
2. https://thewire.in/tekfog/en/2.html
3. https://thewire.in/tekfog/en/3.html
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tek_Fog
5. https://www.samarthbansal.com/the-wires-tek-fog-investigation-futile-search-for-evidence/
6. Others.