Sanjay Raut seeks curbs on fake social media, has an advice for Amit Shah

Sanjay Raut alleged that there were 5 crore fake social media accounts active in the country.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said Union home minister Amit Shah should rein in fake social media accounts and warned that an “illegal use” of social media-army can backfire on the government. Raut, in his weekly column RokhThok in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, said that Shah should take the initiative to clean up social media bots and that should start with his own party, the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut took potshots at the BJP over alleged use of fake social media army. (HT PHOTO)

Raut referred to the 80,000 social media accounts, allegedly created using false identities to discredit the Mumbai police and Maharashtra government’s investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death to make his point.

“Amit Shah is the home minister and he should acknowledge that the illegal use of cyber army can be destructive for the country and society. The use of this army for character assassination of opponents and to stifle dissent can backfire on the country,” Raut warned in the column.

He alleged that the use of social media army and incessant attacks on its opponents have become a national policy for the BJP and a few others.

“BJP won the last two general elections with the help of social media. Poisonous campaign that would put Goebbels to shame was implemented,” he said, adding that the campaign projected all other leaders including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh as “useless” in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Raut further added, “Amit Shah at an event once said that ‘we can make news acceptable through our thousands of WhatsApp groups’. This confidence is good for a party chief but he should not forget that he holds the reins of the country today. The social media, that found Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh to be useless, also made fun of our prime minister after a video of him seated in an army jeep waving his hands through an empty tunnel went viral.

“This is not right...,” Raut went on, “In the Sushant case, 80,000 fake accounts were created to defame Mumbai police. 5 crore such fake accounts are active. Such illegal activities should be put to a stop by the help of law. Country’s home minister should take an initiative in this. And he should start with his party,” he said.