Police to Investigate 'Fake News' Social Media Accounts

The Congress interim Delhi chief Devender Yadav and senior leaders met the city police commissioner on Monday and requested him to act against some social media accounts spreading fake and distorted news against the party. Yadav on Saturday lodged a police complaint against the BJP for allegedly spreading fake and distorted news against the party on social media.

The Congress' interim Delhi chief Devender Yadav and senior leaders met the city police commissioner on Monday and requested him to act against some social media accounts spreading ''fake and distorted'' news against the party. Delhi Commissioner Sanjay Arora assured the Congress delegation that the police will take action on the complaint, Yadav said. He told the commissioner that an edited video of senior leader Rahul Gandhi was being circulated with mischievous intent to discredit the Congress and create confusion among Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minorities to create an impression that he had spoken only about the minorities, according to a statement. ''We have noticed for some time that edited and fake videos are being continuously shared on social media by some handles. We filed a complaint two days ago at Tughlaq Road police station where we mentioned these issues and mentioned the handles where those links were shared,'' Yadav said in a statement. ''We can put these type of videos and posts in the category of hate speech. When we filed that complaint, we had hoped that an FIR would be lodged soon. But, after waiting for two days, when no action was taken, we came here to meet the Delhi Police commissioner and he assured that they will take action soon,'' he added. Praveen Shankar Kapoor, the BJP's spokesperson in Delhi, said the entire country has seen Congress leaders, including a chief minister, being involved in circulating deepfake videos of senior BJP leaders. No BJP worker has ever been involved in developing any fake video and the Congress, which has already lost the elections on the ground in Delhi, is now raising irrelevant issues to counter the effect of its major leaders quitting the party, he said. Yadav on Saturday lodged a police complaint against the BJP for allegedly spreading ''fake and distorted'' news against the party on social media. In his complaint, he mentioned that repeated publication and circulation of videographic content, which is either ''false, malicious or simply intended to mislead the voters'' during the Lok Sabha elections, is intended to mislead the people. These malicious videos are all available in the public domain. These videos have been ''distorted, doctored or edited'' to mislead the public and the voters and also to create ''enmity and hatred'' between communities as the excerpts contain misleading and false content, a party statement had stated.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)