Lighthouse Journalism found a post being shared on various social media platforms, which claimed that the ‘ministry’ will monitor platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc. It also claimed that social media posts against the government or any prominent person will be liable for prosecution. During the investigation, this claim was found to be false.
Claim:
Facebook user Sharad Nene shared the viral post on his profile.
Other users too are sharing a similar post on various social media platforms.
Investigation:
We started our investigation by using simple Google keyword search.
We did not find any news reports about the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology seeking control of social media platforms.
We then checked the ‘Model code of conduct for the guidance of political parties and candidates’ on the website of Election commission of India.
We also checked the compendium of instructions of model code of conduct. We did not find any statement that suggested prosecution of people on sharing posts about government or political leaders or parties.
We did find a report that suggested that the model code of conduct and its pre-certified political advertisement rules will apply to social media as well. But these were regarding advertisements and not social media posts.
In the next step of investigation we connected with Commissioner of Police, Nagpur, Dr Ravinder Singal who informed us that the department has received no such information regarding the prosecution of people posting on social media platforms.
Conclusion: The ‘ministry’ is not monitoring social media accounts for prosecution of people writing against the government or political figures, the viral claim is false.
