Divya Spandana Promoting Fake Accounts, Says BJP; She Says Video Edited

New Delhi: Congress's digital communication head Divya Spandana is on camera suggesting multiple fake accounts to "spread misinformation about the Modi government", her BJP counterpart Amit Malviya tweeted this morning, along with a video.

BJP leaders in Karnataka marched into the police commissioner's office in Bengaluru to file a complaint against Divya Spandana, the actress also known as Ramya.

"If they are impersonating accounts then it is an offence. So we have asked the commissioner to prosecute as she is abetting an offence. And it amounts to a conspiracy. She is asking people to create these fake accounts, which is a punishable offence," said BJP leader Vivek Reddy.

In the video shared by Amit Malviya, Divya Spandana tells Congress workers in Kannada: "Fake accounts are bots, it's a robot, a machine, not a person..." A worker is heard saying: "It's very wrong, Ma'am". She turns to him and says, "You can have many accounts if you want...there is nothing wrong in having many accounts."
 

After a failed attempt to deploy BOTS in order to shore up Rahul Gandhi’s popularity on social media, Divya Spandana, in-charge of Congress’s digital communication, caught on camera urging workers to create multiple ‘fake accounts’ to spread misinformation about Modi govt... pic.twitter.com/x3scrf9ojF

— Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) February 7, 2018

 
Divya Spandana tweeted that the video had been "edited out of context".
 

1. The video is edited out of context
2. Was explaining the difference between bots, fake accounts & multiple accounts to a question from the audience.
3. Said, if you want to express your own view please do so on your individual handle not on an official account
E.g., pics pic.twitter.com/kXlV4ZAuxL

— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) February 7, 2018

The Congress's social media in-charge has been roundly condemned by the BJP over her recent jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a counter to PM Modi's acronym - "TOP" priority for tomato, onion and potato - at a rally in Bengaluru on Sunday, Divya Spandana had quipped: "Is this what happens when you are on POT." Responding to BJP leaders' outrage at her innuendo, she wrote she had meant "Potato, onion, tomato", but embellished her tweet with a winking emoji.

In the run-up to the Karnataka election later this year, both the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP are using social media in a big way to bolster an acrimonious campaign. Earlier, the two parties had war online over beef.