‘Need support of social media sites to counter spread of fake news’

Police, admn officials say they rely on personal experiences to check rumours

LUCKNOW: An old 20-second video clip that shows two motorcycleborne men grabbing a child from a roadside is being used to cause a scare about child kidnappers across the country.

The video has already led people to panic in many southern states, reportedly causing at least 20 deaths. Last Sunday, five people were lynched in Dhule, Maharashtra, on the suspicion of being child lifters.

A day later, a Supreme Court bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra took cognizance of the incident and said that the state governments were under obligation to prevent lynchings and mob violence. The court stated: “Such incidents cannot happen by the remotest chance.”

Though this specific video has not perpetrated any violence in Uttar Pradesh, the state has witnessed several incidents of mob savagery. Just last month, a meat trader in Hapur district was lynched allegedly on the suspicion of being involved in illegal cow trade.

“Rumour mongering, which leads to such incidents, occurs mostly on social media -- primarily whatsapp and facebook,”

said Divyank Sharma, an IT expert involved in data pattern analysis. “These platforms provide quick, cheap and versatile media to transfer data. Thus, they are used, rather abused, for spreading rumours,” he added.

Police say they have to deal with such situations on a regular basis.

In Pilibhit last year, there was sudden tension when

rumours spread about the custodial death of a local woman leader. “A false message of her death was circulated in several whatsapp groups, flaring up the situation,” recalled Devranjan Verma, the then superintendent of police, Pilibhit.

However, Verma’s quick thinking averted any trouble. “I recorded a video of the woman leader and circulated it on the

very same groups, proving that she was alive and well,” he said.

SP special task force (STF) Arvind Chaturvedi said, “The spread of information on social media happens in a very unstructured way, which makes it difficult to keep a tab on how far it has travelled. We need to rope in all related agencies, including whatsapp and facebook, to establish a structure

through which such incidents can be prevented.”

TACKLING FAKE NEWS

As there are no set guidelines on ways to tackle fake news, local police and administrative officials say they deal with rumour mongering in their own way.

“Most of the expertise in this field comes from the experience of handling such situations. The police will have to keep adapting to technological advances that are facilitating the spread of fake news and leading to untoward incidents,” said senior cop Devranjan Verma.

Taking lessons from past incidents, police of all districts have formed teams to keep tab on any misinformation doing rounds on social media. Local intelligence units and sources also provide support in this regard. Besides, the police encourage local residents to report any misinformation that they come across.

One such initiative is the UP Police’s ‘Viral Check’. Through this, anyone can tag a video going viral to the police, to be analysed by experts for veracity. Administrative officials too are increasing relying on their personal experiences to counter rumour mongering.