Maharashtra Cyber Police Registers 196 Covid-19 Related Fake News Cases, 37 Arrested

In a bid to check the spread of hateful messages and rumour-mongering on social media vis-a-vis the coronavirus situation, the Cyber wing of the Maharashtra Police has issued 55 "Take Down" notices to Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and other such platforms during the lockdown period, an official said on Tuesday. While a total of 32 such objectionable posts have been removed, police have arrested 37 people and identified 114 others.

The Maharashtra Cyber has registered 196 cases related to spreading of fake news, rumours and hateful messages as well as for circulation of misinformation during the lockdown period till April 14, he said. While 188 of the total 196 cases are converted into FIRs, the rest eight cases were registered as Non-Cognizable (NC) offences, he said. The official said the trend of spreading hateful messages has been on the rise since the last seven days. "At least 104 (of the 196) offences registered at various police stations across the state were related to spreading of hate speech on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and other social media platforms," he said.

At least 68 more cases related to rumour mongering cum fake news while 27 cases of circulating misinformation on the overall coronavirus situation have been registered, the official added. He said various social media platforms have removed 32 such posts from their platforms, after Cyber Police approached them. The official said 93 of these cases are related to WhatsApp alone. "These posts can be removed due to the nature of technology and encryption," he said, adding that notices were issued to other social media platforms as well in the rest 80 cases, and that the process of removal of these posts is in progress.

He said more than 30 notices were issued under section 149 of CrPC, which empowers the police to prevent cognisable offence. According to the official, police found that WhatsApp was misused the most (93 cases), followed by Facebook (61 cases), Tiktok (3 cases) and Twitter (2 cases) for spreading of hateful messages and rumours, he added.