SHILLONG: The state government has taken a serious view of the fake news being peddled in social media about cases of COVID-19 infection, and police have registered cases against the unknown authors liable to be prosecuted under the law.
According to police, two separate cases have been registered at Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and under the Disaster Management Act.
The tough stand of the government came a day after social media was abuzz with rumours that two staff of secretariat and many people in Nongmynsong had tested positive for COVID-19.
Earlier, Health and Family Welfare Minister, AL Hek expressed concern that the affected patients were being socially stigmatised.
Hek visited a locality in Nongmynsong where a woman was tested positive for COVID-19 and said that it was not right to stigmatise or discriminate against people just because they are infected by the virus.
“We need to understand that anyone can be infected by the virus,” he said while lamenting that some people in social media are trying to project that everyone from this locality has been infected with COVID-19.
“We have contained only the house of the couple. We have not contained the whole area,” he clarified.
To a question why the identity of the couple is revealed when the government previously protected the identity of the patients, he said that there is nothing wrong since people already know who the persons are.
“Even in Pomlakrai and Mawprem people came to know the identity of the affected patients,” he added defending official disclosure of identity of patients.
Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that the government has entrusted a dedicated team to trace out the rumour mongers of false COVID-19 cases and put them behind bars.
Stating that rumours spread like wild fire in the entire state on Wednesday night and he himself received 30-40 calls from people enquiring about the same, Tynsong said that this is totally wrong and now the police department is on the job to find out those responsible and put them behind bars as per the law.
The Director of Information and Public Relations, on Friday filed an FIR with the Cyber Crime Police Station against a Facebook page by the name ‘Lakewoods Eco Camp’ for uploading two fake news regarding containment zones.
Another FIR was also filed against some unknown persons for propagating fake news through WhatsApp and other social media platforms about officials from Secretariat and NIC tested positive for COVID-19 and about four people tested positive in Nongmynsong.
