OSINT Community and their India conundrum

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ezsasa

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For the uninitiated, OSINT stands for Open source intel, which is basically a bunch of people who these days source their information from Non-MSM websites and on SM mostly by data analytical tools.

i am sure they have their limited uses in real world geo-politics.
i have to admit that i did not know that such a thing existed until Feb 14 bombing and it's aftermath, this whole banning of a couple of twitter handles piqued my interest couple of days back.

can't say about their uses for rest of the world, but when it comes to India-Pakistan issues they are absolutely clueless. it looks like somehow over the years the their whole community's perspective on indo-pak issues is based on paki based or supported handles. For example there were 4 terror incidents yesterday, and none got shared by this community.

and there was a theory floated by our boy natsecjeff that indian govt is responsible for suspending their account, and rest of them just went with it without even questioning why will Indian govt have jurisdiction over american twitter handles.

interesting part was that for the entire two days there were hardly 10 india based handles which got involved in the conversation, many of them were sympathetic to the cause which is fine. there were just two indian handles doing a counter narrative. and as usual these two chaps suck at their communication skills.

ideally you would think these "international" OSINT veterans who would recognise the difference between state sponsored co-ordinated attack on SM and a couple of handles frustrated about state of affairs in their OSINT community when it comes to india-pak issues, that the primary source of info in indo-pak issues are paki sourced. but no the OSINT "experts" used these kids to get street cred in their "community".
 

ezsasa

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Articles pertaining to the topic...

CONCERNED USERS WORRY AS TWITTER SUSPENDS SEVERAL ‘OSINT’ NEWS ACCOUNTS

A group of popular Twitter accounts that tweet about open-source intelligence (OSINT) and generally try to highlight developing and breaking news stories were suspended on Saturday night for unspecified reasons. They join a growing list of account suspensions – sometimes for political reasons, but also for more arbitrary reasons that have alarmed users of the popular social media platform.
https://www.jpost.com/International...r-suspends-several-OSINT-news-accounts-592663

Twitter suspends OSINT handles for showing positions of IAF aircraft during Balakot crisis

Twitter has suspended several handles which had used open-source intelligence (OSINT) to put out details of Indian military aircraft, other than fighters, on 26 and 27 February, the day of the Balakot strikes and Pakistan’s retaliatory action respectively.

The social media giant has told handles like the popular @ELINTNews, that they’ve been suspended for “violating Indian laws”

https://theprint.in/india/twitter-s...of-iaf-aircraft-during-balakot-crisis/251488/
 

ezsasa

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The news article which triggered this nonsense....
========================
Retired Pakistani officers behind ‘fake news’

Hyderabad: An independent social media tracking operation that commenced after the February 26 Balakot air strikes has found that there are at least eight Twitter handles that pose to be ‘independent observers’ behind Pakistani defence lines but are spreading unconfirmed news, many at times fake.
...
Another instance was the fake news that the Indian Air Force had carried out another air strike, this time across the international border near Fort Abbas in the Cholistan desert in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur district.
...
The information was spread by a handle F Jeffery (timestamp 4.01 pm, March 4). India denied the report.
...
A Twitter handle, ‘KashmiriIntel’, was spreading such information on threats to national security, that the Army complained to Twitter, which subsequently blocked it. The information, regarding by the Army as harmful to the country, is being spread by another handles.
...
On the claim that certain handles were managed by retired Pak generals, the investigators found that the account Faran Jeffery, who purported to be a neutral observer, was deputy director and head of the South Asia desk at the Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism, a think tank headquartered in London. What is not mentioned is that he is associated with a Pakistani national security think tank called CommandEleven.
...
“CommandEleven is a Pakistani propaganda outfit created and directed by retired Pakistan Generals specialised in information warfare. Its new website https://www.commandeleven.com is down since the Pulwama attack,” Mr Kasli said.

https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nat...ired-pakistani-officers-behind-fake-news.html
 

ezsasa

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For me the interesting realisation in this episode is how paki have managed to create a information black hole about pakistan within the OSINT community. ideally these OSINT communities are supposed to catch the news like paki army captains dying by falling in a ditch in Balochistan.

India on the other hand is like an open book, we wash all our dirty linen in public and yet very few of the terror related incidents especially in J&K make it to the OSINT feeds.

Gotta give it to ISI on this one, they are good at this.

it's basically same tactic ISI uses with their journalists, but on SM.
 

ezsasa

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These osint can also be used to create war hysteria and misinformation.
They most likley can also be hired to do this no doubt, we saw many of these during balakot scuffle.
Tho this step to humble them a bit is very well appreciated.
i don't think it worked, but let's see..
One thing is for sure, their biases against india will continue...
 

ezsasa

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Just to add, the two twitter accounts about whom the whole fuss was made about are like news aggregators, i am not sure if they actually create OSINT. Others can correct me of i am wrong.
 

ezsasa

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Another possible flaw is this whole concept of OSINT..
If pure data analysts who depend on algorithms and software to develop OSINT, there is a high probability they might get it wrong unless they have in-depth knowledge about the geography and people/groups involved in that particular theatre..


Take Kashmir for example: most of the events happen in Sri nagar, Shopian, kulgaum and Ananthnag. Our news sources usually don’t mention the exact village or town but only release district info. If multiple events happen in the same district on the same day, the algorithm may presume it as one incident. Or a ignorant analyst might assume it as one incident even if algorithms generates the proper data.
 

ezsasa

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The saga continues, I'll bet CNN and BBC will be on to this story by this evening.
well played natsecjeff.
========================
India Bullies Twitter Into Banning Accounts of American, British Students Thousands of Miles Away


Twitter is warning a Texas college student that it might “be obliged to take action” after some of his tweets were ruled a national security threat by the government of India eight thousand miles away.

The notice issued to 21-year-old Ryan Barenklau on Saturday is part of a crackdown on a group of open-source investigators who spend their days sifting through data and imagery to glean insights on regional conflicts around the world. Barenklau’s focus is primarily on Crimea and North Korea, but in May a journal in India wrongly claimed his account was part of a Pakistani disinformation ring.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/india...ican-british-students-using-censorship-law-15
 

Deathstar

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Why are we even targetting these OSINT guys?they dont even have that much following , hardkh anyone sees their tweets , instead by doing this we are giving them free publicity
 

aarav

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These OSINT guys are doing propaganda ,serves them right,they got active as soon as ghafoora tweeted of balakot strike
 

sorcerer

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Why are we even targetting these OSINT guys?they dont even have that much following , hardkh anyone sees their tweets , instead by doing this we are giving them free publicity
eggjactly...
may be that the inbred Journos latched on to them and spun own stories...throwing some chutiyens off balance!
OSINT might have created an issue for "INVESTORS"
 

Poseidon

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Now almost all the suspended accounts arr back and reinstated.

@elintnews @intelcrab @inteldoge were never run by Pakistanis.

Huge embarrassment for Indian Intel.


Good thing is real Paki propaganda accounts like PCMD are still banned though.
 

ezsasa

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Now almost all the suspended accounts arr back and reinstated.

@elintnews @intelcrab @inteldoge were never run by Pakistanis.

Huge embarrassment for Indian Intel.


Good thing is real Paki propaganda accounts like PCMD are still banned though.
There was never any indian intel involved..... Indian Govt was dragged into this because the kids wanted to be heroes. i am yet to see proof that indian govt was involved... They are saying "indian govt" was involved because of this mail they received. unless someone can get hold of this mail, so that mail header can be examined i am not convinced.
if the mail is not authentic, then it means everybody got played.
if the mail is authentic, then twitter is responsible for this mess. apparently one of the tweets mentioned in list is about Notre-dame fire. why would Indian govt be bothered about fire in paris?

 

Darth Malgus

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I doubt they will be focusing much on Indian news anymore. As for Natsecjeff , people are taking him too seriously. And the Daily beast article seems like a huge pile of crap.
 

Absolut_Vodka

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Is it true that some Paki twitter accounts are banned under Indian laws? Pakis writing back to twitter how Indian laws applies to a Paki, lol hilarious!!!!
 

sorcerer

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Asif Ghafoor cautions against 'irresponsible, biased use of social media'
"Irresponsible biased use of social media and vested negative trends can lead to misunderstandings/spats," said the director general (DG) of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), army's media wing, on Sunday.


Gayfoora getting taste of OWN MOOJIK!
Caww..Cawww
https://www.dawn.com/news/1492659/a...inst-irresponsible-biased-use-of-social-media
 

ezsasa

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Somebody dug up OSINT on Nutsack....
=================
Thread about @Natsecjeff - Mr. Syed Farhan Jaffri aka Faran Jaffery. Since he claims to be an analyst, I though of exposing who he actually is. He's just another idiot lascivious living in Gulshan e Iqbal, Karachi.

Previously he used @farandk and @mrpolyathiest usernames on twitter. He claims to be a member of counter terrorism organization but he was actually managing a home tuition academy in Karachi.

The reason why @Natsecjeff (Farhan Jaffri) has love relationship with Israel is that his dad is living in Israel after dumping his actual mom, married to a jew lady there and also converted from Muslim to a Jew. FJ may have been hired by anyone from Israel for what he's doing.

He would may delete his previous tweets now but if you see his history he was just a lustful retard who only engaged with girls on twitter. Since his dad is in Israel, he (claim to) made some international trips and suddenly became an analyst from a tutor. Suspicious.
 

Srinivas_K

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Somebody dug up OSINT on Nutsack....
=================
Thread about @Natsecjeff - Mr. Syed Farhan Jaffri aka Faran Jaffery. Since he claims to be an analyst, I though of exposing who he actually is. He's just another idiot lascivious living in Gulshan e Iqbal, Karachi.

Previously he used @farandk and @mrpolyathiest usernames on twitter. He claims to be a member of counter terrorism organization but he was actually managing a home tuition academy in Karachi.

The reason why @Natsecjeff (Farhan Jaffri) has love relationship with Israel is that his dad is living in Israel after dumping his actual mom, married to a jew lady there and also converted from Muslim to a Jew. FJ may have been hired by anyone from Israel for what he's doing.

He would may delete his previous tweets now but if you see his history he was just a lustful retard who only engaged with girls on twitter. Since his dad is in Israel, he (claim to) made some international trips and suddenly became an analyst from a tutor. Suspicious.
if his father left them and married an Israeli, the he should be hating Israel?
His father might have gone to Israel to establish connections between two countries.
 
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