Uttar Pradesh Police have intensified their crackdown on misleading social media content and privacy violations related to the Mahakumbh, registering cases against 101 accounts across 10 incidents for spreading misinformation and objectionable material.
Authorities have taken legal action against two social media accounts for allegedly posting and selling explicit videos of women pilgrims bathing at the sacred event. The crackdown follows directives from Uttar Pradesh Police Chief Prashant Kumar to combat offensive content related to the religious gathering.
The police's social media monitoring unit detected that certain platforms were uploading videos of women pilgrims bathing and changing clothes, violating their privacy. A case was lodged at the Kotwali Kumbh Mela police station.
On February 17, a case was registered against an Instagram account for allegedly posting inappropriate videos. Authorities have requested Meta, Instagram's parent company, to provide details of the account operator for further action, including possible arrest. In another case, registered on February 19, a Telegram channel was found offering similar content for sale. Legal proceedings have been initiated, and investigations are ongoing.
Following Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's directive to curb misinformation, police have launched a cyber patrolling initiative to monitor and counter fake news regarding the Mahakumbh. Several cases have been registered for spreading misleading content. On February 19, police booked 26 accounts for linking a Pakistan-based video to a false claim about a Maha kumbh stampede. On February 14, 22 accounts misrepresented a video from Champawat, Uttarakhand, alleging a violent clash and stone-pelting at the Mahakumbh.
On February 13, 15 accounts circulated a 2024 Bihar video, originally from a Pushpa 2 film promotion event, falsely claiming nationalist devotees had thrown slippers at army personnel at the Kumbh. On February 12, seven accounts falsely linked a 2021 video from Ghazipur, alleging bodies were floating in the Ganga due to a stampede.
On February 9, 14 Twitter accounts misrepresented a Dhanbad, Jharkhand video, claiming UP Police assaulted devotees searching for missing family members.
On February 7, a Facebook account spread false claims about crowd management efforts in the Sangam area, portraying it as a stampede.