Online images showing huge crowd support for businessman-turned-presidential contender, Azruddin Mohamed, are but “illusions” created and managed through a clandestine operation that may involve persons hidden somewhere creating fake reactions and comments. This is according to Executive Member of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) and Attorney General, Anil Nandlall.
During his recent Issues in the News Programme, Nandlall said he was first surprised when he saw images of the crowd backing the businessman’s party, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) online. However, he noted that his astonishment was short-lived when someone pointed out to him the finer details of the graphics.
“I was surprised because I thought this was a big crowd, and then someone, obviously more technologically endowed than I am, was able to show me the manipulation. You had a repeat of people’s faces all over the same crowd. I don’t know what they do or how they managed to do it, but in the next couple of days, no doubt, someone much more qualified than I am will be explaining it,” he predicted.
The AG added, “The thing was highly conjured up, and it was an illusion, and apparently, you can do that to make a small gathering look large. That was done.”
Nandlall alleges that WIN has several thousand fake profiles on Facebook targeting persons critical of the party.
“I am tired of blocking them. They would be like red ants on me right now. They’re crawling out with all kinds of names: Pussycat, Dogface, Gilbacker Head – all kinds of names they have, and they’re cursing…putting blue hearts all over.”
Nandlall noted that many of these profiles do not have photos of actual persons and are either locked or contain no information about the users.
“They have a couple of people somewhere, in some building or who are operating a keyboard like keyboard warriors, and they inundate you with these comments. So, when you see 40,000 likes and 5,000 comments, they are doing it themselves,” he said.
He reminded that while one person may have several profiles, they only have one vote.
“You may have 50 fake profiles, but it won’t translate into 50 votes. That illusory exercise is meant to deceive; to create the impression to people that you have this large following,” he said.
