Social media to help identify ‘offenders’

THE PANEL WAS SET UP TO FOIL SPREAD OF RUMOURS AND HATE SPEECHES IN THE WAKE OF THE VIOLENCE IN NORTH-EAST DELHI IN FEBRUARY THIS YEAR

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Legislative Assembly Committee for Peace and Harmony said on Thursday that it will ask Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter to help it identify some “offenders” who have shared inflammatory posts on social media.

The panel, set up to foil spread of rumours and hate speeches in the wake of the violence in northeast Delhi last month, recorded statements of 14 complainants and of a person accused of spreading inflammatory content on social media. “The committee questioned and recorded the statements of 14 complainants, who had drawn its attention towards inflammatory content,” chairman Raghav Chadha said. “It had summoned a man accused of sharing inflammatory content through Whatsapp. He confessed to his crime which is punishable by imprisonment up to three years,” he said. The man claimed that he was not aware of the law and apologised to the panel. “He has promised to remove the inciting posts and post a public apolo g y o n h i s s o c i a l me d i a accounts,” Chadha said. “We will ask representatives of Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter to join the investigation to establish the identity of those who shared inflammatory posts on social media,” he said. Communal violence in northeast Delhi on February 24-25 left at least 53 people dead and over 200 injured.