Five cases filed over posts to fuel tension in coastal districts: Cops

Mangaluru city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said that it was not difficult to shut off the internet to curb such social media activity that fuels tensions but that it would impact many people, including those working from home, teaching online and businesses that use the internet for daily affairs.

The Mangaluru city police said on Sunday that at least five cases have been registered against unknown people for posting provocative and incendiary messages on social media platforms to rake up communal tensions in the coastal districts of Karnataka.

Police said provocative speeches and social media posts are closely monitored in coastal Karnataka districts as several of them have led to fuelling tensions (PTI)

“Our social media monitoring cell has been tracking all such posts in Mangaluru city and surrounding regions. We are looking at such posts and those that have led to fueling communal tensions. We have been doing this ever since the first murder was reported. As a consequence of that, this morning, we have filed five cases through our officials in the social media monitoring cell,” Mangaluru city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said.

The statements come at a time when the communally sensitive coastal districts of Karnataka are on high alert after three murders were reported within the last fortnight.

Provocative speeches and social media posts are closely monitored in these parts as several of them have led to fueling tensions, police said. There have been attempts to validate such misinformation by attributing it to big politicians, intelligence agencies, religious figures and other personalities, they added.

Kumar said that there was one post which said that there was a big probability of communal violence in the coastal districts, which was attributed to the state intelligence department.

Another post said, “there should be 10 murders for every one of their own killed”, Kumar said.

Kumar said that there were eight police teams constantly monitoring such groups, adding that its network has managed to infiltrate such groups.

He said that some communal or derogatory comments made in the comments section of digital platforms were also being looked at.

“Whoever makes these individual posts or Whatsapp forwards, likes it or shares it, comments on digital sections, we have documented it all. They think that by not revealing their identity, they can maintain anonymity,” he said.

He added that it was not very difficult to shut off the internet to curb such social media activity that fuels tensions but that it would impact many people, including those working from home, teaching online and businesses that use the internet for their daily affairs.