Detect rumours early to tackle lynching: MHA to states

Amid a spate of mob lynchings that were fuelled by rumours of child lifting, the Centre on Thursday asked states to keep a watch for "early detection" of such rumours and initiate effective measures for countering them.

In an advisory, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that the states and Union territories should take measures to prevent incidents of mob lynching fuelled by rumours of child lifting circulating on social media.

The MHA urged them to keep a watch for early detection of such rumours and initiate effective measures for countering them."

"The states and Union territories have been asked to direct district administrations to identify vulnerable areas and conduct community outreach programmes for creating awareness and building confidence. It was also stressed that complaints of child abduction or kidnapping should be properly investigated to instil confidence among the affected persons," a statement said.

The MHA advisory comes as at least 30 people were killed by mobs since May 20 suspecting that they were child lifters. Rumours on WhatsApp and other social media sites had triggered a spate of such incidents.

While the latest incident was the lynching of five men in Maharashtra's Rainpada village of Dhule district, Karnataka saw such an incident in May when a construction worker from Rajasthan was beaten to death over the suspicion of being a child lifter.

In Assam, a young sound engineer and his friend were beaten to death in Karbi Anglong on June 8 after locals suspected that they were kidnappers. In Tripura, a youth hired by the authorities for campaigning against rumours was beaten to death while two others were also killed in a separate incident.

Such incidents have been reported from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana.

Following reports about provocative messages spreading through WhatsApp, the government had shot off a letter to the social media giant asking it to take steps to prevent misuse of technology.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said finding technological solutions to detect such content cannot be "rocket science" for digital giants who reap benefits from the Indian market.

The US-based social media platform in its response to IT Ministry's notice has said it has taken measures to curb abuse of its platform. The company said it has the ability to prevent spam but since it cannot see the content of private messages, blocking can be done only based on user reports.