COVID-19: Kerala police launches 'cyber patrol' to nab those spreading fake news

At a time when Kerala's COVID-19 graph continued to scale up with record number of cases, the state police has launched 'cyber patrolling', a strict vigil on social media platforms to find out those spreading false news regarding the virus. Director General of Police Loknath Behera has warned of stern legal action against those spreading lies through online platforms regarding the pandemic outbreak.

There is a lot of inauthentic and unscientific stuff being propagated by some people about COVID-19 through social media, he said.

"Not just creating such fake news but sharing it also is a crime," the DGP said.


As an increasing number of such instances came to the notice, the hi-tech crime inquiry cell at the police headquarters and the Cyber Dome,a centre for excellence for Kerala Police in cyber security, have been instructed to carry out strict cyber patrol on social media to apprehend those who were creating and sharing such false news and messages, Behera added.

Kerala's active cases soared to 1.98 lakh on Saturday as the state reported 26,685 fresh cases, 73 of them health workers, according to the state government.