Saree squad from Rawalpindi: Inside the great social media hoax

A substantial portion of digital dissent and social friction we witness daily is being engineered transnationally, orchestrated from across our borders.

- BRIJESH SINGH

Imagine engaging in passionate discourse with a farmer from Ludhiana regarding agricultural policy, only to discover he is tweeting from a suburb in New Zealand. Or nodding along to a concerned Kashmiri activist’s heartfelt plea, unaware that the person behind the screen resides in a government office in Rawalpindi.

For years, Indians have harbored suspicions that the cacophony of outrage on social media wasn’t entirely organic. We acknowledged bots existed; we recognized “IT cells” were real entities; yet the scale of foreign interference remained perpetually speculative. That paradigm shifted late last month, when a seemingly innocuous update on X (formerly Twitter) illuminated a dark room—and what materialized before our eyes was both startling and revelatory.

THE REVELATION: A NATION AWAKENED

In late November 2025, X deployed an innovative transparency feature titled “About this account.” The objective remained elegantly simple: to exhibit the primary country or region where an account operates. It was designed specifically to counteract bot proliferation, yet during a brief, chaotic temporal window, it functioned akin toa Geiger counter for deception.

The feature transcended mere location display; it systematically shattered meticulously constructed personas. Abruptly, “patriotic” American accounts were unveiled as operations headquartered in Mumbai, while thousands of “Indian” activists, journalists, and concerned citizens were exposed as entities functioning from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and beyond geographical boundaries.

THE 'SAREE' BRIGADES OF RAWALPINDI

‘The revelation manifested itself with impartiality and brutal efficiency. For India specifically, the data painted a particular, troubling canvas: a substantial portion of digital dissent and social friction we witness daily is being engineered transnationally, orchestrated from across our borders.