A special team has been formed by the CRPF to filter through fake news that has come up in circulation online. In the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack where 44 CRPF jawan were killed, many photos of maimed soldiers, some aimed directly at creating communal disruption, surfaced online.
“There was a flood of posts and photos and videos. Some outright gory and others filled with communal hatred. It was disturbing,” said M Dinakaran, DIG and Chief Spokesperson, CRPF. “Some of the posts were almost an insult to our jawans. They did not lay down their lives so that their death could become the cause of communal hatred. We knew we had to do something,” he added speaking to BoomLive.
To debunk such posts, aimed at generating malice and unrest, this team of CRPF jawans — a 12 to 15 member team is Delhi — had to sit filtering through pools of data when their colleagues and friends were helping the injured. Dinakaran said, “I saw one post from Buldhana which showed some body parts in a bucket. It claimed that they were the remains of a CRPF soldier and that’s how it was given to the family of the jawan. The photo was horrific and disturbed me no end.”
Other regional centres, too, have been set up to filter through posts. A BoomLive report also mentioned that personnel had to be sent to verify posts at the ground itself. Tracing down content and replacing fake news with correct information called for a big team. The CRPF plugged into its pool of three lakh soldiers, as well as friends and family, to spread out right pieces of data. It also issued a warning against fake news, asking people to report it at once.
Also read: Shah Faesal Censored: TV Interview Allegedly Stopped Midway By Samrat Hotel Security Staff