The Ministry of Information and Technology (MeitY) has stepped up to the plate by blocking several accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram for circulating ‘fake and inciting’ news on their handles. The decision was made public by the Minister of State for IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday.
Owners of these accounts are being identified for action under the law, he added. Reportedly, the government has identified 73 Twitter handles, 4 pieces of YouTube content, and 1 Instagram account which has been removed from the public domain accordingly.
This menace was discerned by the authorities when the Delhi Police filed a case after coming across a morphed video of a cabinet committee meeting wherein some persons tried to show that the meeting was against the Sikh community.
Task force on Safe&Trusted Internet at @GoI_MeitY at work👇🏻
Handles tht tried to push fake/inciting content on twitter, youtube, fb, insta hv been blockd.
Also
a. ownrs of accnts being ID'd for actn under law.
b. to review platforms on their due diligence#SafeInternet 🇮🇳 https://t.co/52uQfIqOU6— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) January 8, 2022
On Friday evening, the minister had responded to a tweet that urged him to take action against the “creators of a very violent video that features the PM”, which “has been in the public domain since December 2020”.
In between the extensive crackdown on hateful posts, it was revealed that the offensive content actioned pertained to a fake video of a cabinet briefing, an animated fake video showing violence against the Prime Minister and derogatory posts targeting Hindu women uploaded on social media handles.
