State cops file over 600 cases for ‘offensive’ social media posts

Mumbai: Maharashtra police has filed over 600 cases in the last two years against social media users for communally offensive content, the bulk of it against Twitter and Instagram account holders. Since the pandemic-induced lockdown began in 2020, 636 cases have been registered for objectionable posts that seemingly provoke communal disharmony or incite violence against politicians.

- V.Narayan

According to the Maharashtra Cyber Cell, the cases date from March 2020 to June 2022 and the Indian Penal Code sections invoked are 153A (promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, language), 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 505 (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes). These are the same provisions under which Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair has been booked for his tweets.

In almost two-thirds of the cases (403) in Maharashtra, police has managed to persuade the intermediaries – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube – to delete the posts. But in more than 200 of them, action is shown as pending as the tech platforms have disputed the police viewpoint that the posts are inflammatory or fall within the ambit of hate speech.