Assam violence: Social media fanning rumours, triggering panic, say police officials

LUCKNOW: Exodus of Northeast people from metros is triggered by rumours, politicians and police are claiming.

Railway figures show that ‘thousands’ boarded trains to Assam in the last two days although police officials claim that there were no untoward incidents and the reason for panic is nothing but rumours flowing through SMSs and social networking websites.

Free speech and social media has become a synonym for the present young generation. For those who grew up with Facebook & Twitter, there is no alternative way to reach out people on a mass scale and connect to. This unfiltered flow of information has yet again brought forth social media freedom into question.

Government, when it was at the receiving end, tried to tame the social media content but faced the erring from the ‘free internet’ groups. But can this medium be left to the nature for the flow of information?

New media has been blamed for the violence in Mumbai on August 11 as well. Investigators found that circulation of inflammable videos and messages related to Myanmar and Kokrajhar violence may have led to such a large scale mass protest. This new media now has posed itself as a two-way sword.

Mumbai violence and its aftermaths are due to the weak links of government in checking rumours through this form of communication. This poses as a major security risk and antisocial elements can hugely influence the masses by the use of these tools.

The flow of messages remains untamed and the viral nature of information flow can tweak-and-turn the message and turn into rumours.

To address the netizens, Assam health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to Twitter on Thursday. “My humble request to everyone, please do not believe in rumour. We are completely safe in any state and any part of India,” tweets Sarma.