The Maharashtra State Cyber Department has uncovered a ‘cross-border disinformation campaign’ linked to nearly 500 social media profiles during the recent NEET protests. According to a press statement issued by the office of the Additional Director General of Police, technical analysis revealed the involvement of anti-social elements operating from outside India, particularly from Pakistan and certain Middle Eastern countries.
These elements were found to be actively amplifying misleading narratives targeting Indian audiences. The AI-generated content included digitally inflated crowd visuals, synthetic voice generation, cloned audio, and manipulated videos falsely attributed to public figures.
Maharashtra Police has initiated legal action against the identified accounts and has taken down the objectionable content through social media intermediaries. The monitoring drive resulted in the identification of 429 objectionable social media posts and handles across multiple platforms, including Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube.
Technical assessment revealed that approximately 100 accounts were operating from outside India, and further analysis established that more than 140 posts and profiles involved AI-generated or AI-assisted content. This content was scientifically detected and validated using Maharashtra Cyber’s state-of-the-art audio-video forensic analysis tools.
The police have been monitoring social media through dedicated mechanisms involving large-scale Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT), metadata examination, behavioural analysis, and forensic examination of AI-generated and deepfake content. The monitoring exercise identified a coordinated network of social media accounts disseminating false, misleading, and AI-generated content with the apparent objective of manipulating public perception, creating confusion, provoking unrest, and disturbing public order.
