Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had recently issued strict instructions to the authorities to crack down on fake news.
Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara. (G Parameshwara/ Twitter)
Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara has said the state government is ready to take all measures required to curb “fake news” — including the use of technology like “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) — and taking such cases to their “logical end”.
He said the government is ready to bring in necessary laws, in case there is no provision to punish those involved in such cases, under the existing legislation.
“Some people are involved in spreading fake news, whether it is on political issues or those aimed at disturbing the peace in the society. We have observed that fake news is posted on various platforms and social media. Photographs are morphed, aimed at projecting it to be linked to some sensitive issue, to which the photo is actually unrelated,” Parameshwara said.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on Tuesday, 27 June, he said: “We have observed this during the elections and even now after the formation of the government. If we don’t stop it, it may lead to several kinds of wrong notions whether at a personal level or social or government level, and its impact may be huge.”
“So we have decided to take all kinds of measures— by using technology like Artificial Intelligence — to identify those posting such things, their origins, their intention, and finally take necessary legal action. We will take it to a logical end. We will also bring in necessary laws, in case there is no provision to punish those involved in such cases, under the existing laws,” he added.
New issues are cropping up frequently with respect to cybercrime, Parameshwara said, adding, in some cases, there may be no provisions under the existing cyber laws to enforce control measures and have to be amended regularly, as technology is changing every day.
“So we will bring in amendments if necessary, if there are provisions in existing laws, amendments will not be required,” he added.
Parameshwara said last week the government would soon hold discussions with social media sites and platforms such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, among others, aimed at controlling sensitive and inciting posts that may lead to communal flare-ups.
He had also said that discussions are underway regarding setting up a cyber security wing at every police station to address the issues at the jurisdiction level itself and to bring down the number of such cases.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had recently issued strict instructions to the authorities to crack down on fake news.
Siddaramaiah had an elaborate discussion in this regard with Parameshwara, on 20 June. The chief minister noted that, back in 2013, when the Congress came to power, the menace of fake news had increased.
He said that the party’s political opponents were adopting the same strategy this time around too.
A day after the chief minister spoke about the fake news issue, the state’s Information Technology (IT) and Biotechnology Minister Priyank Kharge in a tweet said, “The BJP IT Cell and their functionaries may have the blessings of their supreme leaders to spread hatred, but we have the blessings of the Constitution and the people to stop them.”
Earlier, a technical team was set up in the Bangalore City Police Commissionerate and Police Headquarters to detect fake news, fact-check, warn, and create awareness among the public. However, the BJP government stopped fact-checking when it came to power, Siddaramaiah stated on 20 June.
A senior police officer told South First that a team of policemen, who sat at both the city police commissioner’s office as well as the state police headquarters on Nrupathunga Road, were tasked with monitoring social media and television news channels.
“The teams would be seated in a control room-type set up, monitoring multiple television screens that broadcast national news and vernacular news from across the state. They would also browse through social media accounts for trending topics and posts that go viral,” the police officer said.
“If they stumbled on any controversial content by way of tweets, videos, photographs, audios, or Facebook posts, the team would work on fact-checking the content. It would subsequently put out information on whether it is fake or genuine on social media, and this was done to bring awareness among the members of the general public,” the officer explained.
(With PTI inputs)
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