BHUBANESWAR: Commissionerate Police has set up a cyber help-desk to keep a watch on fake news and misleading information posted on various social media platforms during the ongoing elections.
The help-desk, set up on the direction of Election Commission of India (ECI), is functioning from the premises of Cyber police station here. It is keeping a watch on and taking down inappropriate content posted on Facebook, Instagram and X, formerly Twitter. Steps are also being initiated to remove content found violating the model code of conduct (MCC), said police.
So far, the city police have issued notices to Facebook, Instagram and X requesting to take down 68, 144 and 37 objectionable posts respectively. Besides, police said 110 social media handles are also under active surveillance.
While complaints related to four inappropriate and misleading posts were sent to police by public, the remaining 245 were detected by the social media team of Cyber police station and cyber mitra volunteers.
The notices were issued as the social media platforms were used to post morphed images, fake information, altered audio and defamatory content which tarnished the image of various political parties, said ACP Sarat Sahu. Commissionerate Police has issued helpline number - 7440006709 and email IDs - cyberhelpdesk.bbsr@odishapolice.gov.in and socialmedia.updbbsr@odishapolice.gov.in.