The State police have booked two suspected conspiracy theorists who claimed that the reappearance of the Nipah virus in the State was an elaborate hoax by pharmaceutical companies to ratchet up their product sales.
S. Surendran, District Police Chief, Kochi, told The Hindu that the falsehoods spread by the accused had threatened public interest at a critical time.
The propagandists had also implied that the government was complicit in the “conspiracy” hatched by the private firms. They had attempted to erode the confidence of the public in the government’s attempt to contain the contagion, he said.
The Central Police, Kochi, booked them on the charge of creating mischief and spreading falsehoods in society.
Another senior official said that the police action in Kochi was part of a broader drive to combat false or harmful information regarding the viral outbreak. It did not apply to credible opinions, criticism, satirical caricatures or mockery of the current situation.
The Kerala Police Cyberdome, the State law enforcement’s Internet watchdog, had stepped up efforts to fact check Nipah related online content. It had flagged up a marked increase in misinformation and alarmist propaganda related to Nipah, prompting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday to warn society against trusting canards spread through Internet.