With the ongoing second-wave in the country, one of the most fearful things is the spread of fake news and misinformation about Covid-19 treatment at hospitals and vaccines over different social media platforms.
Though there is a stringent lockdown imposed in the state of Karnataka, the state police force is working hard to fight the fake news setups and viral clips spreading false information about the virus.
A committed cyber team has been appointed by the Karnataka Police Force along with fact checking experts to review the information being passed in the viral videos and pictures flooded over social media platforms.
As per Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP), Praveen Sood, the team will have police officials and volunteers representing the IT sector and the NGOs.
Sood said to media, “The primary objective of the team is to trace these videos and photos spread by the miscreants and establish the authenticity and disseminate correct information to the public. Our team is constantly scanning social media platforms. Even though it is impossible to track every such fake video, we are going after those that affect our people primarily and disrupt the system. Post the verification, the the details of the fake videos along with correct information is posted on our website and Twitter handle.”
The team efforts in reviewing and eradicating the fake videos about rumored torture within the Covid-19 ward within the premises of a city hospital and mob attacking the private hospital for refused admission to Covid-19 patients, has already been lauded by the lakhs of people.
Sood further clarified, “The sole motive of these miscreants is to spread false and fearful narrative. A four-year-old incident in another state and country was morphed to project it as an incident in Bengaluru. As per the law, the police can initiate action against such social media content found to be mala fide.”
While appealing the public to be responsible amid the tough times of Covid-19, the head police official stated, “My appeal to people is to take a few seconds and think twice before believing, retweeting or forwarding such false photos, videos, posts. The situation everywhere is tense, no person shall spread rumours. They may look explosive and sensational but generate a lot of chaos, fear and harm unnecessarily.”
The online portal of Karnataka Police – “ factcheck.ksp.gov.in ” can be used by the people to verify the authenticity of any pictures, videos or messages spread around social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
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