Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir’s cyber police wing has identified 1200 suspected social media accounts that are being used to foment trouble, instigate violence, spread fake messages and eulogising militancy.
The move comes at a time when J&K police is playing a vital role in combating the COVID-19 pandemic in the Union Territory as the entire police force is on roads to implement strict lockdown to prevent spread of the virus. The deadly virus has already claimed five lives including a woman and affected 328 people so far in the UT.
While the fight against coronavirus is in a full-swing in J&K, the cyber wing of police claims that there are hundreds of fake accounts on social media that are fomenting trouble by spreading fake messages, fake government orders, uploading pictures of militants to instigate violence while some are glorifying militancy.
“Kashmir has become a breeding ground for rumors and social media is playing a big role through some 1200 accounts that we have identified,” Superintendent of Police, Cyber wing, Tahir Ashraf told NVI. “For the last few weeks, Cyber Police Kashmir has registered at least nine cases for uploading fake news, orders, and pictures.”
He said that social media is being misused by many people which has thrown up a big challenge for the Cyber police in Kashmir. “We have identified 1200 Facebook pages, Twitter and Instagram which are on our radar,” Ashraf said, adding that some may be operating from across the LoC.
He said Cyber Police was also monitoring all the profiles and the content being shared by the users. “Some posts are to destabilise the social fabric and create law and order in the valley. We are closely monitoring the social media and take appropriate action accordingly,” he said.
The SP said that cyber police was making people aware how to secure their social media accounts and what kind of stuff they should share. “We also noticed that certain users who misuse social media are quite young and are student of primary classes. There is nothing against them in police records,” he said. “We have contacted their parents and are counselling them so they don’t misuse social media. We have already counseled over 25 youth so far,” he said.
For those, who spread fake messages and paste fake government orders on social media, there can be two years of punishment under section 505 of Indian Penal Code (IPC). “And for those who are trying to glorify militants, there can be punishment up to 10 or 15 years,” he said.
Recently, a fake news was uploaded on Facebook wherein a morphed picture of Lalchowk, Ghantaghar (clock tower) Srinagar was shown with a flag of Pakistan occupied Kashmir. A police official said that they immediately registered an FIR. “Those involved were identified and arrested under the provisions of law,” he said. Interestingly, a fake government order was also uploaded on the Facebook, a week ago, which said that 4-G internet services have been restored in J&K.
