Fake News is spreading like an epidemic. An innocent gesture of offering chocolates to children can make others suspicious of you leading to a mob attack by hundreds and thousands. This year more and more such cases of people being beaten to death on false accounts of being child lifters or kidnappers have spread on whatsapp.
The cases became so serious that governments were forced to instruct foreign messenger application, Whatsapp to re-work its policy around distribution of hoax messages. Workshops training common public to not take laws into their own hands but report such cases to the police was encouraged.
Photo Credits: AFP/Representational Image
In an official blog post, WhatsApp detailed how it's launching a test to "limit forwarding" that will apply to everyone using WhatsApp. And specifically for India, WhatsApp is setting a lower limit of 5 chats at once -- the limit for the rest of the world will be 20 messages.
In another move to tighten the noose around anti-social elements, the police personnel of India¡¯s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh is raising an army of 3,67,000 volunteers to combat fake news.
Following, increasing communal disharmony, the Director General of Police, O.P Singh told Hindustan Times in a statement that the digital army will consist of 250 volunteers from each of the 1,469 police stations across the state.
Photo Credits: AFP/ Supreme Court urged the Parliament to enact laws to deal with fake news
¡°We¡¯re horrified by these terrible acts of violence and wanted to respond quickly to the very important issues you have raised,¡± Whatsapp wrote in a letter to the Union government.
The state government uploaded the link to their selection of digital volunteer form on their website. The form required a candidate to fill his name, address, phone number, photograph and the choice of module i.e whatsapp, facebook and Instagram on which the volunteer is required to stay active.
The group will consist of at least two people from each village, town, ward and locality who would be influential in persuading people, respected and peace-loving in the society.
They will be led by 75 district police chiefs-usually a superintendent of police or a senior superintendent of police.The selection committees will also include additional SPs, circle officers and station houses officers (SHOs) of the police stations.
The idea is to appoint retired police officers, school principals, journalists, priests, clerics, businessmen, former and current legislators who would keep a check against fake news.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court condemned mob lynching incidents across the country and urged Parliament to enact a law to deal with the crime. The volunteers wouldn¡¯t be paid for being a part of the campaign since it involves initiated social responsibility.
Police stations will create their own whatsapp groups which in turn will be connected to the groups being monitored by the district officers and DGP headquarters.