Alarmed over surfeit of fake and malicious posts, messages on social media platform, Peace and Harmony committee, set up by Delhi Legislative Assembly on Monday, decided to apprise people against sharing such hate content and spreading rumour which can invite a jail term for three years.
The committee also decided to launch a campaign to prevent hate mongering on social media which can cause enmity between two communities, said Saurabh Bharadwaj, Greater Kailash MLA and Chairperson of Peace and Harmony committee.
The committee held its first meeting on Monday and discussed the reasons behind communal riots in India with a focus on the recent riots in Delhi. "The committee has found that one of the major reasons for such disturbance is fake messages and hate content which gets circulated through Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms. It noted that the people forward these messages without checking the facts and this is how hate and enmity spreads between communities often which leading communal tension and violence," he said.
"In India spreading hate between two communities is a serious criminal offence under India Penal Code and other laws. We will seek complaints from people through campaign in radio, newspapers and other media platforms," said Bharadwaj.
"We will request people that if you get any such fake messages or someone send a hate message on a WhatsApp group, or you see a facebook post then please send it to this Committee. Tomorrow, we will launch a Wattsapp number and an email ID where people can send such complaints," he said.
Bharadwaj further said that the Committee will cross check the complaints using its team of legal experts and if it finds that the content can potentially cause hatred or disturbance or enmity between two communities or groups then it will recommend criminal prosecutions to the law enforcement agencies for necessary action," he said.
"We will also be working with a fact-checking body/probably an agency. They will primarily assist the Committee in checking the authenticity of the content. A team of lawyers will be formed that will assist the Committee and they will provide legal assistance to the Committee. A team of IT experts will be formed that will assist the Committee by providing technical assistance. All the complaints after due diligence, will be forwarded to Police to take the appropriate action," said Bharadwaj.
He said that the members have shared various experience of such fake messages. "We have found that such fake messages are common in the WhatsApp groups of both the communities. We have also found that in many RWA WhatsApp groups or other groups, some mischievous elements circulate such fake messages full of hatred," he added. "We have also discussed how hatemonger and rumormongers spread hate messages through social media. We observed that yesterday also such rumours were spread by some people regarding a communal disturbance in Delhi," said Bharadwaj.