‘Fight lies on social media with facts’

Thiruvananthapuram: The government has instructed its various departments, agencies, PSUs and all the government-controlled bodies to actively utilize the services of the government’s fact-check division to counter the social media posts that are intended to spread wrong information about the government and its officials. As per the government’s instructions, the posts have to be categorized and should be dealt with according to the seriousness of the matter.
In a detailed standard operating procedure laid out by chief secretary V P Joy in the first week of this month, the government asked all the stakeholder departments, district collectors, heads of public sector undertakings and other government-controlled bodies to categorise all social media posts to “red, green or white” categories, depending on the urgency or importance of the matter. “All texts or photos of serious nature that would adversely affect the government or the public should be categorized in the red category. Such posts should be given priority and urgent steps should be taken,” it said.
The posts under the red category should be examined, and permission should be taken from the concerned department secretary or the chief secretary and a press release or appropriate response should be given. Those in the green category should be given a response or press release through the public relations department (PRD), while those in white category need not be given any response. The posts that have importance only at the district level will be the responsibility of the concerned district collector.
Any social media posts that are against the state government, its various departments, bodies or agencies, public sector undertakings and against the government officials, should be scanned for dealing with them using the fact-check division, the circular said. All the departments and bodies should appoint an inter-departmental coordination officer who should also function as the fact-check nodal officer in that body. The details of such a designated officer of the department, including his WhatsApp number and email address, should be shared with the fact-check division of PRD, the instructions said. However, the traditional news media, including newspapers and news magazines, television, radio and their web portals have been excluded from this exercise.
The government had on June 22 last year constituted a fact-check division under the information and public relations department to identify fake news relating to the government and clarify the real matter through the government’s official websites. The division had also decided to refer such fake news which are “serious in nature” to the police Cyberdome for further action. However, since there are no specific laws for taking action against such fake news, police have been able to act only on news that could be charged under sections of the existing laws.
Last year, the government had constituted a team of police officials to take action against those spreading fake news. The police have been using sections in IT Act, Kerala Police Act and IPC for booking such cases. “There are no acts that enable the police to take legal action against fake news. If specifically related to something enacted by law and needs the public to follow it, but if a social media post intentionally spreads wrong information about it, like in the case of Kerala epidemic disease ordinance, such posts can be booked under that law,” a senior official said.