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Bengaluru: Karnataka registered 247 cases pertaining to fake news between 2021 and 2024, according to government data.
Bengaluru city tops the list with 99 cases, Uttara Kannada stands second with 45 cases and Kodagu occupies third spot with 14 cases.
Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara said the government had taken several steps, including setting up a social media monitoring cell at district level and police station level to keep track of fake news spread by miscreants.
“Also, the police have formed WhatsApp groups comprising of beat police and citizens in every locality to step up monitoring or keep track of bad elements. This is helping to increase surveillance at local level,” he said.
The government had set up a fact-checking cell headed by Director General of Police (cyber crime and narcotics) in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in January this year.
The government took steps to constitute a multi-department co-ordination committee (MDCC) along with IT-BT department and special empowered committee (SEC) headed by the home minister to tackle the spread of fake news, he said. IT-BT minister Priyank Kharge told DH that the government was in the process of formulating procedures on identifying misinformation, mala fide information and fake news, that will become the guiding principles for investigation.
“After setting up the fact-checking unit, we came across not less than 1.5 lakh such cases where threats and abuses were used by miscreants to intimidate gullible people. We need to have a strong framework to tackle such threats. The MDCC and SEC are working to evolve such a framework,” he said.
Former MLC and BJP chief spokesperson Ashwathnarayan Gowda told DH that the BJP was not opposed to booking cases against those misusing social media to spread hatred in any form.
But it was opposed to the ruling party’s intention to harass the common man or use cases of fake news as a tool to harass Opposition party workers and leaders.
“The Congress has been using fake news like a whip against Opposition party members. As soon as leaders from the Opposition parties post anything, police come to their doorsteps. The BJP is opposed to this type of one-sided policing,” he said.
Y N Sharma, convenor of BJP intellectual cell, said ever since the Congress came to power, BJP workers were being harassed a lot.
“This government’s priorities are clear. It wants to harass Hindus more by filing fictitious fake news cases. The same government has no shame in releasing from prison those involved in Hubballi riots, KG Halli and DJ Halli riots cases,” Sharma said.