J&K Police to set up ‘special labs’ to monitor social media; rumour mongers under scanner

Jammu, Jan 10: In a bid to tighten noose around rumour mongers spreading buzz, false propaganda and fake news, Jammu and Kashmir Police is soon going to set up ‘special labs’ to monitor social media content.

“Social media is a boon as well as a bane and in the present scenario it is also being misused by some anti-social elements to tarnish image of some persons out of revenge or personal rivalry,” police sources here said.

They said that to keep tab on such elements and the material circulated by them, a ‘special lab’ is soon coming up to tighten noose around rumour mongers.

“If anybody uploads, circulates or forwards any irrelevant material having objectionable content, he will immediately be trapped by the officers monitoring social media through the special lab,” sources added.

Sources however, added that the ‘special lab’ may be operated from the cyber cell of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and added, “special officers, who are technically sound and equipped in handling the hi-tech gadgets vis-a-vis those having complete knowledge about information technology to monitor social media, will be deployed in these labs.”

“The Police Department is also imparting specialised and technical training to some of its men before deploying them,” they added and said that cyber crime cell will have a separate section of ‘special lab’, which will exclusively monitor social media operations.

“As soon as if any objectionable content, fake news is circulated on the Whatsapp groups or Facebook, watchdogs will start their operation to trace the number for further action,” they maintained and said that besides epicentre of the content, those who forward the material, will also face the similar action.

“The Department is also planning to generate some Whatsapp numbers where a complaint can be uploaded by the informers while a Facebook Page will also be created to closely watch happenings around on social media,” sources added.

“If anybody writes or uploads objectionable content on social media, it will automatically come to the notice of the expert teams following which the ‘Special Labs’ will act swiftly and initiate action under section 107 of CrPC (Any person is likely to commit a breach of the peace or disturb the public tranquillity or to do any wrongful act that may probably occasion a breach of the peace or disturb the public tranquillity) against the mongers,” sources further added.

Jammu and Kashmir Police have taken this step in view of rising number of complaints of fake facebook pages, fake social media accounts and uploading of morphed objectionable photos.

Sources however, said many such complaints are also lodged in various police stations across the district and in the Crime Branch wing of the state police while police is working on different modalities to crack these cases.