Maharashtra Cyber Says More Than 7,000 Posts Flagged as Fake News, Hate Speech Since March 2020

Officials from Maharashtra Cyber have said that they flagged more than 7,300 online posts as fake news, hate speech, defamatory or malicious rumours between March 2020 and 2021. However, officials said that only 31 per cent of the posts were taken down by social media or video sharing apps. 

Maharashtra Cyber is a nodal office under the purview of the State Government. The agency is tasked with cybercrime investigation while maintaining overall cybersecurity. Officials further said that peddling of rumours was at a high shortly after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. 

“A major surge in defamatory and malicious rumours was observed after actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death last year. Theories about what caused the actor’s death, who could be the people involved, whether there was a link between his death and that of his former manager Disha Salian, what circumstances did Salian die in etc., were posted on social media,” an official said.

Officials also registered a total of 808 offences pertaining to COVID-19 disinformation, while 339 people were reportedly arrested for the same. Key political figures or celebrities are often targeted with malicious posts on social media. 

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“When a post is flagged for being offensive or fake, a notice is sent to the social networking website or app with a request for taking it down. But the websites consult their own legal team before reaching a decision,” another official said.

Maharashtra Cyber has a cell consisting of six officials who monitor online content by working in shifts. “Our cell either monitors online activity on its own or on the basis of a specific complaint. We have tools to track down the source of the post,” the official added.

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Other officials said that disinformation about COVID-19 infections and deaths began appearing on social media platforms when the lockdown began in March last year. In Nagpur, authorities registered a case and apprehended three people on March 27, 2020, following a viral audio clip that was circulated on WhatsApp, leading to quite a lot of panic among the common public. 

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