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A video allegedly depicting Pakistani influencer Sara Baloch has been going viral on social media, which has left the users of both Pakistan and India confused and concerned. The police in Pakistan have since acted in relation to the case and arrested three suspects who are allegedly blackmailing and harassing the Tik Tok star over the purported video. Police say that those people filmed and distributed an immoral video to blackmail Sara Baloch, a Balochistan lifestyle and social media poster and most likely extort money. The growth has highlighted the problem of online privacy and how viral content is used to commit crimes.
The viral video narrative has also been accompanied by malicious links, which are being warned to the people by cybersecurity experts and fact checkers as well. Scammers have taken advantage of the incident as an excuse to distribute bogus links purportedly leading to the video, which are usually accompanied with terms such as the Assam student in an attempt to entice the users to do so. These connections are however said to be associated with malware attacks which may compromise personal information, install malicious software or steal important information in the devices of the victims. Law enforcers and internet safety campaigners are calling on users to always be cautious of websites having suspicious links and ensure that they authenticate such information before redistributing it.
The bigger scandal points to the persistent worrying aspects of the manipulation of viral videos and the content of social media as a means of extortion and cybercrime. The example of Sara Baloch has attracted a renewed debate on the safety of online influencers, especially in situations where personal or fake videos can easily go viral and allow their users to harass, blackmail and expose themselves to scams. In Pakistan, the case is still under investigation by the police, and the digital rights groups stress the need to enforce more stringent security measures against people victimized in such online attacks.
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