Police register cases against social media users for peddling ‘misinformation’

The police did not name the twitter handles against which the Cyber Prevention Awareness and Detection (CyPAD) registered the cases for allegedly sharing or posting fake posts over violence during the farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day.

Delhi Police on Wednesday said they have registered four cases against several social media accounts as part of their action against the “massive misinformation campaign being undertaken on social media to incite violence in the name of farmers’ protests and cause large-scale disturbance in the national capital”.

Among those who were issued notices was Yogita Bhayana, founder of NGO, PARI, for two tweets that she posted around the time of the clashes. (Reuters)

They said requests for the removal of the “offensive and unlawful posts” has been sent to the service providers.

The police did not name the Twitter handles against which the Cyber Prevention Awareness and Detection (CyPAD) unit of the police registered the cases for allegedly sharing or posting fake posts over violence during the farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day.

Last week, the police arrested a 29-year-old man from Rajasthan’s Churu and apprehended a minor boy from Rajasthan for allegedly posting an old video with fake message about resignation by 200 Delhi Police personnel, said Delhi Police spokesperson Chinmoy Biswal.

Among those who were issued notices was Yogita Bhayana, founder of NGO, PARI, for two tweets that she posted around the time of the clashes. Bhayana was booked by the police for the two tweets and in the notice issued to her, she was asked to “inform the source and reason for uploading” the two posts.

While the two tweets couldn’t be found on Wednesday, Bhayana said they were in reference to the alleged shooting by police — a charge denied by the police.

“I stand by what I tweeted. They were not done with an intention to cause riots. I just shared my concern about police’s atrocities against farmers and in the hope that it would stop instead of aggravating,” said Bhayana.

Ahead of the farmers’ tractor march on Republic Day, which turned violent, Delhi Police reported over 300 Pakistan-based Twitter handles trying to vitiate farmers’ protest.

On January 30, the Union ministry of electronics and IT (MEITY) directed Twitter to block around 250 tweets and Twitter accounts which were using offensive, inciting hashtags which have been making fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets.