SML, the super cops of cyber space

Mumbai: This team of 26 personnel of Mumbai Police’s Social Media Lab (SML) patrol not the pavements but the vast cyberspace

Mumbai: This team of 26 personnel of Mumbai Police’s Social Media Lab (SML) patrol not the pavements but the vast cyberspace. They are largely away from the public glare and unlike their better-known khaki-clad colleagues, these law keepers don’t find expression in art, cinema or daily conversations.

In the last 11 months alone, the SML have taken down 15,500 provocative, hateful, sensitive, and objectionable posts that potentially could have disturbed the harmony of the city. Out of these, 15,000 were communal or defamatory comments and 500 related to terror activities. (Image for representation)

However, in the last 11 months alone, the SML have taken down 15,500 provocative, hateful, sensitive, and objectionable posts that potentially could have disturbed the harmony of the city. Out of these, 15,000 were communal or defamatory comments and 500 related to terror activities.

Hunched over the monitors of their computers, the SML personnel go through gigabytes of data every day to find and flag content that could potentially lead to, or has already led to, law and order problems in the city.

Brief history of the lab

Currently headed by senior police inspector Kailas Chavan, the SML was created in 2013 after the Delhi Gang Rape case, which later came to be known as the Nirbhaya case. It was the brainchild of the then police commissioner Satyapal Singh, who went on to join the Bharatiya Janata Party and became a Central minister.

“The massive youth protests at India Gate after the gang rape in Delhi was mainly fuelled by discussions on social media. It woke us up to the fact that the traditional sources of information do not always give a correct picture of societal needs and misgivings, and hence we decided to set up the country’s first social media lab,” Singh had said while opening the lab.

He had said that the lab’s primary work was to understand the pulse of the citizenry by keeping a watch on the social media and help prepare the police accordingly. “Till then, we hadn’t ever tried to understand what was happening on the Internet, but in 2013, the need to change that was felt urgently,” he said.

The Lab Operations

The SML’s job is to scan and identify any and all objectionable posts and taking appropriate action against them. In some cases, the posts are removed off the internet altogether, in collaboration with the concerned platforms where they are posted.

In other cases, the information is forwarded to the concerned police station, and cases – either cognisable or non-cognisable – are registered against the individuals posting the messages.

Besides, based on the lab’s work, the Maharashtra Cyber Cell has sent 13,416 notices to social media platforms, following which around 7,834 posts were immediately removed by the platforms. Further, 1,565 posts were forwarded by the Maharashtra Cyber - the apex body in the state to handle Cybercrimes.

“From January 2020 till December 2022, 1,548 FIRs and 206 non-cognizable cases were registered across the state on the directions of the Maharashtra Cyber. Of these, 1,102 cases were detected and 1,718 persons were arrested,” said Special Inspector General of Police (State Cyber), Yashasvi Yadav.

Big Tech’s big wall

Police sources said the task of getting the posts removed from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube was easier said than done, as in some cases the platforms don’t completely agree with the viewpoints of the law enforcement agencies and have their own standards and policies on what is termed as objectionable and troublesome.

This has for long been a bone of contention between the law enforcement agencies and the Big Tech, which effectively, follows its own policy rather than adhering to the laws of the countries that they cater to.

“Big Tech always abide by their own standards when it comes to content. To cite just one example, YouTube has an algorithm that scans the audio and the video for any copyright violations. However, videos of beheadings by terrorist outfits are released on this same platform without any issues whatsoever,” said cybercrime and cybersecurity expert Brijesh Singh, who was the first police officer to head the Maharashtra Cyber cell. He is the currently Additional Director General, Home Guards and Civil Defence.

Cyber expert Ritesh Bhatia concurred with Singh’s observation, saying, “Social media platforms, also known as intermediaries, at times apply double standards. I have seen several examples in which intermediaries, despite the cops writing to them, have not taken down objectionable posts. While in communal matters they act quickly, they don’t show the same promptness in individual cases, where somebody is defamed and might even commit suicide due to it.”

On their toes, always

For the SML, however, there is never a dull moment, thanks to controversial statements by politicians or sensational crime cases, and the resulting eruption of reactions on social media.

Be it the recent statement by BJP leader Chandrakant Patil, the statement’s about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by Governor B S Koshyari, the Maharashtra-Karnataka Border row, Love-Jihad, the recent murder case of Shraddha Walkar, the controversial statement by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma or the COVID 19 pandemic, when rumours were spreading almost as fast as the deadly virus.

“Work load has increased, as nowadays it is very easy to morph pictures of political figures or the post content that can hurt one or more communities’ sentiments. We train our staff accordingly and take help from external cyber experts. Our aim is to monitor, not to crack or hack.

“We keep an eye using keywords like terrorism, Jihad, names of radical groups or individuals. Most importantly we keep an eye on bulletins and propaganda magazines, which are released from time to time by terrorist groups and even by various radical groups,” said a senior officer with the Mumbai Police.

Slow decline in posts

The online activity on popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. is scanned with the help of advanced computer programs, keywords and tools. These programs also detect potentially inflammatory messages in other languages, like Arabic, said a police officer, requesting anonymity.

“We not only take down the posts but also send notices to users under section 149 (to prevent cognisable offences) of the Criminal Procedure Code, such notices let the user know that he is being tracked and such posts should be deleted to avoid any further action,” said Yadav.

Despite all the challenges, the SML is observing a slow decline in objectionable posts. Thanks to swift and increasing number of arrests in such cases, the people are slowly realising that their action will have serious consequences.

“In last two years, we had around 35,000 posts taken off the internet, related to Mumbai alone. This year, that number has gone down to 15,500,” said a senior police officer.