CHENNAI: In the age of social media, rumours pass off as facts and before verifying their authenticity, the damage seems to be done due to the wildfire nature of the platform.
Be it government’s vaccination drive or new currency coins, the consequences are almost irreversible and Anna University was no exception to it.
Last semester, many students did not turn up for an on-campus placements believing rumours that the session was cancelled at the last minute. In an attempt to curb this, the university has framed new set of rules blacklisting students found spreading such rumours.
The circular sent to students in this regard even goes a step ahead by announcing that students who ‘accepted’ false information without verifying it with the placement cell, will be barred from placements.
“Mostly these rumours were spread by students who were either not eligible to attend placements or by those who were earlier rejected by the companies,” said a senior university official requesting anonymity.
Nearly 250 placement representatives were selected among the student fraternity in all four university department -College of Engineering, Alagappa College of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning in Guindy and Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet.
They were made part of a WhatsApp group in which all placement-related information was put out by the authorities concerned.
Despite instructing students not to take up any messages outside this group seriously, many don’t turn up believing fake messages on company’s profile and their HR policies.