Bengal violence: Fake posts from Brazil, Bangladesh flood social media – Times of India

KOLKATA: Cops in Bengal have deleted more than 500 fake posts of “post-poll violence in Bengal” and “Hindu genocide in Bengal” in the last 96 hours but the numbers are just one indicator of the enormity of the problem. The fakes have become much more “international”: among images sought to be passed off as “Bengal violence images” are old photos from Brazil, Venezuela and Bangladesh.
On Sunday, the CID tweeted a video link where a verified user — Chaudhary Amit Singh — claimed a man was beaten and assaulted with sticks and stones.

The video had originated from Brazil, and is at least three years old, the CID said. Also, a 2018 video from Venezuela has been shared on social media as a political worker being lynched in Bengal in post-poll violence by “TMC goons”. Kolkata Police has flagged a Bangladeshi video that was being passed off as an attack on a polling agent in Bengal. After this, half a dozen videos have surfaced with morphed images from incidents which took place in Bangladesh, sources said.
Since May 5, when police units across the state began monitoring fake news, the number of fake videos under surveillance is stated to be in the hundreds.
The CID has contacted social media companies like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and have taken down close to 300 posts and accounts. The Kolkata Police claimed on Sunday that it had flagged and removed 200 others.
Investigators say there has been special emphasis on a few districts, from where the volumes are higher. The state police have lodged five FIRs in Cooch Behar alone. Four people have been arrested. Another arrest took place at Howrah. TOI had reported that CID had arrested two persons from Deganga and Sonarpur earlier. CID sources said most of the rehashed old incidents are those that were reported from UP, Bihar and Odisha.
“We have lodged five separate FIRs at Cooch Behar and arrested four persons for sharing fake news that was promoting enmity. We have decided to have no tolerance for anyone sharing fake and unverified news and WhatsApp forwards. All cyber units have been asked to be vigilant and cross-check everything on the internet and issue rejoinders on our police social media pages,” said a top cop at Nabanna.
ADG (law and order) Jawed Shamim has urged people to be vigilant against fake or unverified news. In Kolkata, police have now lodged four FIRs — the last on Sunday by Shyampukur police station — for sharing fake news that can disturb peace in the city. The cops have slapped Section 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups), apart from sections dealing with cheating and under the IT Act.
Joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma said the cyber cell was treating each post seriously. “We have already issued six notices for the profile owners to come and contact us. If they fail to do so, we will initiate legal action,” said Sharma.
Cyber law expert and special prosecutor Bivas Chatterjee said organized fake news had witnessed a huge spurt in the last one week. “This is the ugly face of social media. Recently, the government came out with a rule, which we are referring to as Information Technology Rules 2021. It has stringent rules on the ethics and the legality of various posts and the liability of various intermediaries. The person posting these objectionable contents can be booked for various non-bailable penal provisions, including the IPC,” he said.