Lockdown: 258 offences in Maha for rumours, fake news; 57 held

The cyber wing of the Maharashtra Police has registered 258 offences for spreading rumours, misinformation, fake news and inciting communal hatred on social media platforms during the lockdown, and arrested 57 persons in this connection, an official said on Wednesday. The cyber wing has been continuously monitoring the online activities of social media users during the lockdown that has been imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19.

"At least 57 persons, who used the social media platforms for spreading misinformation and lies, have been arrested by the police across the state," the official said. Of the total number of registered offences, 114 are related to WhatsApp forwards, whereas 90 others are about objectionable posts that were shared on Facebook, he said.

Beed district has registered the highest number of 27 offences, whereas Pune Rural is at the second spot with 20 such cases. Seventeen and 16 cases were registered in Mumbai and Kolhapur respectively, the official said. In a recent case at Thane Rural area, a man was booked for making a video of a quarantined man when he was being taken in an ambulance, he said, adding that the accused had attached fake information with it on social media, he said.

In another offence at Tiroda in Gondia district, the accused gave misinformation related to timings of opening of shops in the area, he said..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)