Bhubaneswar: The social media monitoring cell of the Odisha Police has blocked 292 offensive posts related to the general elections 2024. These posts were posted by supporters of various political parties and other groups on social media platforms like ‘YouTube’, ‘Instagram’, ‘Facebook’ and ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), a release said Thursday.
On the orders of Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Election Officer (CEO) of Odisha, a special cell has been created for social media monitoring in the CID-CB department. The IG of Police, CID-CB has been designated as the nodal officer of this cell. A specialised team of the social media unit is functioning at the Cyber Complex office here.
The team comprises of a deputy superintendent of police, a single inspector and a sub-inspector, four assistant sub-inspectors and two constables.
This unit is continuously monitoring and carrying out cyber patrolling of social media platforms including ‘Instagram’, ‘Facebook’, ‘X’ and ‘YouTube’ for abusive/hate posts and taking steps to remove the content promptly for safe conduct of the upcoming elections, officials said in a press release issued Thursday.
So far 289 requests have been sent to Facebook for content removal. Out of those, 181 removals have already been carried out by Meta, the release informed.
Similarly, 190 requests have been sent to ‘Instagram’ for content takedown and 110 have been complied with. Three requests on the same lines were sent to ‘YouTube’ and all of them have been removed the release said.
The release also informed that more than 275 handles across various social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit etc are under surveillance and action as per law would be taken against those violating the law. Two FIRs have been registered in the state since March 16 for misusing social media platforms and one have been arrested so far, the released added.
The Odisha government has designated the Additional Director General of Police, CID-CB, as the nodal officer or designated official u/s 79 (3) (b) of IT Act 2000 and IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021) for issuing take down notices to the appropriate intermediary if any online content violates the law or any Act vide Government of Odisha notification (No 4228/HOME-CPM-MISC-0290- 2023/CP&M, dated 03.02.2024).
Using this provision, notices have been issued to various social media intermediaries for content takedown/ removal. The release also said various open-source Intelligence tools have been deployed for effective monitoring of the social media. In addition, the District Cyber Help Desk and District Social Media Cell have been established in all district police headquarters, the release informed.
PNN