New Delhi: The Union home ministry on Thursday asked states to raise their level of alertness in detecting rumours, to curb cases of lynching, against the backdrop of a proliferation of rumours through WhatsApp.
An advisory issued by the ministry on Thursday urged “the states and Union territories (UTs) to keep a watch for early detection of rumours and initiate effective measures to counter them”.
The advisory also stated that “the centre has asked the states and UTs to take measures to prevent incidents of mob lynching fuelled by rumours of child-lifting circulating on social media,” a home ministry spokesperson said.
The ministry’s directive comes four days after five people were lynched by a mob in Maharashtra’s Dhule district, on Sunday, over the suspicion that they were part of a gang of “child-lifters”. Two police personnel were also injured in the incident. The lynching followed rumours on social media suggesting that “a gang of child-lifters was active in the area”.
The Maharashtra home department urged people not to believe rumours circulated on social media, while the Union home ministry instructed states to “identify vulnerable areas” and conduct community outreach programmes for creating awareness, while also instructing state police departments to thoroughly investigate complaints of child abduction.
Two people were also lynched in Tripura and two in Assam, last month, on the suspicion of child lifting, after rumours similar to the ones provoking Sunday’s lynching were circulated on WhatsApp.
On Monday, the information technology (IT) ministry wrote to WhatsApp to take appropriate measures to curtail the spread of fake news and provocative messages on its platform following a spate of murders in the country over the last month connected to fake messages on social media, which have mainly spread through the messaging service. These incidents have been reported from several states including Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tripura and West Bengal.
In response to the government’s call to help end a spate of deadly lynchings, WhatsApp on Wednesday outlined steps, including a change that would clearly mark forwarded messages, to curb the spread of rumours on its platform. It also agreed to respond to “valid law enforcement requests” to help investigate crimes. However, the company said it cannot see the content carried in conversations on the app as these messages are encrypted.
The IT ministry, however, is not convinced with the responses sent by WhatsApp and will soon decide on how to pursue this, said a person familiar with the developments.
On Wednesday, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad demanded greater accountability from social media platforms like WhatsApp. “If in any state, any part, on a particular subject, if there is a movement of large volumes of messages on WhatsApp, it is not rocket science that can’t be discovered by application of technology,” Prasad said.
Last month, the ministry raised concerns related to the roll-out of WhatsApp’s payment service in India, seeking clarity on whether the new UPI-based service conforms to the security and privacy rules of the Reserve Bank of India.
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