With the crucial 2021 assembly elections approaching, the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal has begun to prepare for a battle against the fake news and rumors that can circulate via social media sites and microblogging sites to project Trinamool’s ruling Congress in a bad light.
The prime minister had recently called on the Kolkata Police and the West Bengal Police to strengthen their cybercrime cells to address cybercrime complaints with the highest priority. The state criminal investigation department (CID) has already created a cyber-forensic and digital evidence examination lab.
“Cybercrime has increased. We have to strengthen the cybercrime cell. All police stations need to be more vigilant when it comes to cybercrime. There should be no nonsense. Tackling cybercrime is our priority, ”Banerjee said while heading to a program to observe Police Day on September 8.
The warning came after a social media post circulated that said the state government imposed various restrictions during Durga Puja. Some people were arrested after the prime minister ordered the police to crack down.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and polls in four state assemblies, the Electoral Commission of India (ECI) detected more than 154 cases of fake news or misinformation on social media platforms. In the past five months alone, more than 250 people were arrested across West Bengal for posting and forwarding false news and allegedly harmful rumors.
In West Bengal, just before the Lok Sabha elections, a full page of a vernacular newspaper was bought to spread fake news quoting Mamata Banerjee as saying that she would show how to make Hindus cry if she won all 42 seats in the state.
“The prime minister has asked to explore options if students from the IIT and various universities can be recruited for internships in the cybercrime cells of the state police. All police stations have been asked to address all reports of potentially harmful cybercrime and fake news as a priority, ”said a senior police officer.
The prime minister had recently launched a covert attack on the IT cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party, hinting that he was behind some of those false messages and rumors.
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“We are not fighting a lollipop match. We are fighting for an election and we would do whatever it takes to fight the BJP, both on the ground and in the virtual world, to counter their new and false rumors, “said Derek O’Brien TMC’s leader and national spokesperson Rajya Sabha.
On August 31, TMC had sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, complaining that hundreds of accounts of TMC supporters had been removed on the social media site and on WhatsApp. In another letter, the party wrote that the blocking of pages and accounts points to the link between Facebook and BJP.
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“Mamata Banerjee knows very well that she is losing ground and that is why she is devising new ways to harass and implicate BJP workers and supporters. Our party workers are implicated in false or assassinated cases. But none of her tactics would work as the people of Bengal have come to see her true face, ”said Rahul Sinha, BJP national secretary.
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