HYDERABAD: The TRS Youth Wing on Thursday lodged a complaint with the Cybercrime wing of Cyberabad police against the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) IT Wing and its leaders for circulating fake Twitter trends by paying cash, to defame Telangana government and the TRS leadership. The TDP has been resorting to unethical means to trend hashtags on social media platforms like Twitter, they alleged.
P Jagan, a TRS Youth Wing leader, in a complaint stated: “They are paying huge amounts to certain agencies to trend certain hashtags on Twitter. This week, a few trends to defame the Telangana government and TRS leadership were artificially created by paying money to certain agencies and individuals. These hashtags are #TSGovtStealsData and #KTRFakeTears.”
Earlier, there were reports that people from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and other places were tweeting using the same hashtags. Even non-Telugu speaking people also posted tweets in Telugu, said Jagan. Speaking to media after filing the complaint, Jagan said, “We came to know that the Telugu Desam Party IT Wing is behind the operation. We have some WhatsApp messages sent by Telugu Desam Party IT Wing to propagate these fake hashtags. We submitted the same to Cybercrime sleuths.”
Accusing the TDP IT Wing, he said: “Their modus operandi is to create a Google Doc with tweets containing the fake Twitter hashtag. “Then they engage individuals and agencies to create large number of tweets for a certain payment. Once the Google Doc is shared to these individuals and agencies, they use a few verified real Twitter handles and thousands of fake Twitter handles to push these tweets. This will create a fake trend on Twitter.”
Jagan stated that the tweets were done to defame the Telangana government and also Hyderabad City.
“What is worrying is that they are even pushing information about threat to businesses in Hyderabad, causing damage Brand Hyderabad,” he said.