Fake Twitter Account of Dr Kafeel Khan Gains Traction After Bail

Several social media users shared tweets from the fake account.

Dr Kafeel Khan was granted bail on 1 September by the Allahabad High Court, revoking the National Security Act (NSA) charges against him.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Dr Kafeel Khan was granted bail on Tuesday, 1 September, by the Allahabad High Court, which revoked the National Security Act (NSA) charges against him.

Now, a fake account on Twitter seems to have gained traction as the ‘official’ account of Khan. The account tweeted, “Asslam alaikum (sic)” at 11:09 am on Tuesday, 1 September, which was retweeted by several social media users, along with other tweets claiming to be tweeted by Khan himself.

An archived version of the tweet can be found here.

You can view an archived version here. 

You can view an archived version here. https://archive.is/RNjDu

Another tweet was also shared by users stating, "आज मुझे बेल मिल गयी, मेरे लिए दुआ करने के लिए आप सबका तहे-दिल से शुक्रिया"

(Translate: "Today I got bail, I thank you all for praying for me.")

You can view an archived version here. https://archive.is/ZoFMH

The fake account had also retweeted a user sharing his account as the “official account” of Dr Kafeel Khan.

You can view an archived version here. 

WHAT WE FOUND

The account had changed its Twitter bio several times on 1 September.

When called out by several account users as a fake account, the user added, “parody account” to its bio.

Screenshots from tools to analyse Twitter accounts, Foller.me and Tweetbeaver, captured around 6:00 pm, show the words, "parody account" in the account's bio.

However, the user again deleted the words, “parody account” from their bio, probably in an attempt to gain more followers.

Screenshot from Tweetbeaver, captured at 8:00 pm, shows the updated bio.

The analysis tools also reveal that the account was created quite recently, in January 2020.

Further, the word 'lecturer' has also been misspelled as "lecture" in the account's bio.

The images used by the account are file photos of Khan from news agencies, PTI and IANS.

Evidently, the account @dr_kafeel_ is impersonating Dr Kafeel Khan to gain followers on Twitter.

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