Social network surveillance has to be strong, says CM

Kolkata: In a bid to counter every "intentional" attempt of spreading "fake news", the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed the officers-in-charge of every police station to immediately circulate the correct facts along with supporting photographs and videos on social media from the spot itself about which misleading information was spread.

Two police personnel will be dedicatedly posted at each block to carry out the task.

As soon as any "fake news" in social media gets identified, the dedicated police personnel will rush to the spot and will show the actual picture to reveal the truth that nothing has happened and misleading information was spread intentionally to create confusion among people.

She said: "Police have to keep a close eye at the situation and the social network surveillance has to be strong."

This comes when there had been repeated attempts of "creating riot" by spreading fake news. Citing the incidents of North Dinajpur and Malda, Banerjee said that actually nothing had happened there but fake news with morphed photographs were uploaded in the social media.

Without naming BJP, she had repeatedly slammed the party for allegedly spreading misleading information using its

IT cell.

According to the experts the move of deploying two police personnel ar each block will benefit the common people as misconceptions about any such development will get nullified immediately.

She further stated that police have to be more active in the districts those share international border to avert any cross border crime.

It may be mentioned that a fake guideline on Durga Puja was also released in social media a few weeks ago and it created misconcetion among people as it was prepared in the format of a government notification.

Both the state and Kolkata police have set up a special

team comprising officers experts in cyber crime to tackle the fake news menace.