KOLKATA: In the wake of possibilities of worsening law and order situation in West Bengal as a result of alleged rumour mongering on social media websites during recently concluded Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti, State intelligence agencies have decided to monitor the Hindutva pages, their posts, comments and profiles of individuals.
The gravity of the situation also came to the fore on Wednesday when chief minister Mamata Banerjee requested people not to fall for rumour mongering on social media. “Rumours are being spread on social media to breed animosity between communities. Do not listen to such rumours. Don’t forget that I am with you. They want to spread riots, we will stop them,” she said while inaugurating an additional unit of Sagardighi thermal power plant in Murshidabad district on Wednesday.
Sources claimed that the security agencies have to face a team of tech-savvy youngsters who have been recruited to regulate posts of Hindutva organisations and their proponents. “The tech team monitors the posts and comments of individuals, and deletes comments that are too offensive and may be tracked. They also delete fake profiles, which is a big challenge as most of the inflammatory comments are made from fake profiles. We will track down posts and fake profiles and the hardware from which they are uploaded,” a senior official of Cyber Crime Cell told the New Indian Express.
The West Bengal secretariat, Nabanna, and police headquarters, Lalbazaar, has given a go-ahead for the monitoring of Hindutva pages, posts and comments after witnessing massive online mobilisation for Ram Navami processions throughout the State.
On initial scrutiny, security agencies have found that youth are being targeted and large numbers of controversial and inflammatory posts were made just before Ram Navami, and after the October riots, which shows that posts had been made with motives during specific occasions.