BENGALURU: She fought a battle against election candidates who had the same names and won. Now she’s battling for her social media presence. Many fake profiles of Sumalatha Ambareesh, the MP for Mandya and actor Ambareesh’s wife, have popped up on Facebook, leaving her fans confused.
On Thursday, Sumalatha knocked on the doors of the cyber crime police to ensure that around seven profiles, all fake and on Facebook, were blocked. She even took to Twitter and Facebook from her official handles to denounce the fakes. While her personal profile on Facebook is verified, she is yet to get verified on Twitter.
“It has been brought to my notice that several fake FB pages have been created in my name posting utter nonsense, will be taking stringent action against those up to this mischief with the help of Cyber Crime branch. This is my verified FB handle for friends & I have only one other official page....,” she posted on her Facebook page.
Sumalatha launches salvo against fake profiles
Mandya MP Sumalatha Ambareesh launched an online campaign to establish her social media credentials and authentic Facebook account, by denouncing the fake accounts on Twitter and Facebook.“It has been brought to my notice that several fake FB pages have been created in my name posting utter nonsense, will be taking stringent action againstthose up to this mischief with the help of Cyber Crime branch. This is my verified FB handle for friends & I have only one other official page where I communicate with my constituents.
I shall post that link here. Meanwhile, if anyone notices any other unofficial page please report it immediately,” theparliamentarian posted on her Facebook page.Sources close to her said that the fake pages were carrying out a campaign to convince her supporters that her recent win in the polls was due to the BJP’ssupport. One of the fake pages that The New Indian Express accessed had put up a post, posing as Sumalatha, with the text, “Congratulations to Mr Yeddiyurappawho’s the next Chief Minister. The leader who supported me for my victory and stood behind me as a huge pillar of support is the new Chief Minister.”
She also alleged that some of the fake pages were posting abusive and obscene comments and contents and that their names were similar to the name of herofficial page Sumalatha Amarnath. Interestingly, she had to change her profile name on Facebook to @realsumalatha due to this.
Cybercrime sleuths said that most of the fake accounts which posted abusive content had been tracked and blocked and that they would soon be off Facebook. “Wehave not registered an official complaint yet. We have seen the tweet and we are looking into the fake profiles and tracking the ones who created them,” said a senior cybercrime official.
The real Sumalatha