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‘If Neeraj Chopra wins gold, I will give 10 thousand rupees’, how much truth is there in the promises being made on social media regarding the Olympics?

The countrymen are eagerly waiting for the javelin throw final of the Paris Olympics. In such a situation, many social media users are making false claims to boost their profiles that they will donate money if defending champion Neeraj Chopra successfully defends his title on Thursday.

Since Chopra qualified for the final on Tuesday afternoon, over 20,000 posts have been shared on X (formerly Twitter) promising thousands of rupees if Chopra wins gold to those who like and share the post.

One post on X read, “If Neeraj Chopra wins the gold medal, I will pay Rs 10,000 to everyone who likes and retweets this.” An analysis by Aaj Tak’s open-source intelligence (OSINT) team found that nearly two thousand users shared posts with the keywords “Neeraj” and “Paytm” on X between August 6 (1:00 pm) and August 7 (1:00 pm).

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Known among analysts as “engagement farming,” this deceptive practice is designed to inflate social media statistics by making false promises related to various events.

Surprisingly, Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant’s ex handle also joined the trend. He posted, “If Neeraj Chopra wins the gold medal, I will give Rs 100089 to the lucky winner who likes and comments the most on the tweet. And the rest of the top 10 people who are trying to get attention will get flight tickets. Let’s get support for my brother from India and outside the world.” Pant or any representative from his side has not commented separately on whether he intends to keep the promise.

This tactic appears to have worked for most social media participants, who garnered thousands of likes and reposts – far more than they usually receive. For instance, a Premium X user known as @sabby_004 received an average of five likes on his previous posts, but his post promising to give money if Chopra wins received over a thousand likes. Similarly, @SirAshu2002’s post received over ninety thousand likes, while his previous posts had two or three likes.

However, some users also poked fun at the trend participants. One user wrote, “If Neeraj Chopra wins gold, I will become a millionaire by tomorrow.”

What is engagement farming?

In April this year, X CEO Elon Musk warned users against engagement farming. He posted, “Any account found doing engagement farming will be suspended and the source will be traced.”

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Any account found engaging in engagement farming will be suspended and its source will be traced

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2024

They promised users that they would activate the AI ​​chatbot Grok to detect and remove posts that not only reduce the quality of content but also erode people’s trust in social media.

Influencers and social media users often post misleading content to increase engagement metrics such as likes, reposts, comments and follower base. This is called engagement framing.

DogeDesigner, a known source for updates on Elon Musk and his ventures, puts it this way on X, “inducing users to engage with a post by liking, sharing, or commenting on it in order to enter a contest or giveaway, regardless of whether they have any genuine interest in the content.”

Attached Farming :

• Encouraging users to engage with a post by liking, sharing, or commenting on it so they can enter a contest or giveaway, regardless of whether they have any genuine interest in the content.

• Posting irrelevant content in the comment section that is not related… pic.twitter.com/6fInrg974b

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) April 19, 2024

Examples include posting irrelevant content in the comment section, using someone else’s original content to gain engagement, and asking questions that encourage users to comment, such as tag your friend who needs to see this.


Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)

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