Odisha Police Blocks 292 Offensive Posts On Elections In Social Media

Bhubaneswar: Social Media monitoring cell of Odisha Police has blocked 292 offensive posts related to General Election 2024.

These posts were posted by supporters of various political parties and other groups on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), stated a press release of Odisha Police.

On the orders of Election Commission of India and Chief Election Officer of Odisha, a special cell had been created for social media monitoring in CID-CB. IG of Police, CID-CB was designated as the nodal officer of this cell for general elections 2024.

A special team of the Social Media Unit is functioning at Cyber Complex, CID-CB, Bhubaneswar and doing cyber patrolling of the social media sites for abusive/hate posts. It is also taking steps to remove the pages/accounts for safe conduct of the upcoming elections.

This cell also takes remedial and legal steps including preservation of data and take down of content in respect of the fake/malicious posts that can affect a free and fair electoral process.

In Facebook, 289 requests were sent for removal of the content and 181 complied by META. In Instagram, 110 0f 190 posts requests have been removed, while one of 3 YouTube posts have been removed, the release stated.

The Social Media Unit of CID-CB is in direct touch with the nodal officers of different social media platforms for quick removal of objectionable posts as well as for timely take down of the contents. Various open-source intelligence tools have been deployed for effective monitoring of the social media.