Acting tough against 'rumours' concerning COVID-19, police in Assam arrested seven people and removed over 100 such posts on social media till Sunday.
Officials said at least 12 cases were registered by CID of Assam police so far for spreading "rumours" or provocative contents on social media platforms.
"Because of the lockdown, millions of people are glued to social media, as it is bombarded with deluge information. We are drowning with updates about corona on various social media platforms. These are often confusing and many times misleading. This misinformation ranges from offering remedies to tackle corona to blaming the administration. Every hour, hundreds of fake news are shared on social media. There is a sharp spike in rumour mongering since the lockdown was clamped," L R Bishnoi, additional director general of police, CID, Assam, posted on Facebook.
He said that several social media accounts were also removed as part of their efforts to tackle the problem of fake news and rumour-mongering. "These accounts not only blatantly violated the laid down policies but attempted to undermine public privacy. Spreading rumours is a punishable offence as per section 505 IPC. It is cognizable, non-bailable offence and can invite imprisonment ranging between three to five years and fine or both. It was also recently made punishable offence under section 6 of ‘The Assam COVID19 regulations, 2020’," he said.
Assam on Sunday reported one more positive case from Cachar district taking the total number of positive cases to 26.
Lockdown enforcement
Police arrested 1,074 people and registered 446 cases in connection with violation of the lockdown. Police also seized 4,294 vehicles.