In a bid to reduce the
spread of fake news in India and stop the mob lynching happening in India at an
alarming rate the government have begun a massive clampdown on spread of fake
news on social media including whatsapp.
This crackdown by the
Indian police has already seen a 21 year old student who has already spent 5
months in jail for being the admin of a Whatsapp group in India for spreading
what the police called “objectionable content”.
It can be recalled that
fake whatsapp messages has led to the lynching of many people in India for
suspicions of child kidnapping and other reasons.
Junaid Khan a student from
the town of Talen in India’s central Madhya Pradesh state was arrested on
February 14th following a complaint filed at the police station by some locals
based on charges stem from a message that was forwarded in a WhatsApp group of
which he was the Admin, leading to him (the group admin) being arrested.
Police allege the man was
the administrator of the WhatsApp group but his family argued he was made a
“default admin” of the group only after the the original administrators had fled
the group. However, police say they took action based on the evidence they have
seen.
Police say Junaid was the
WhatsApp group administrator when the case came to their notice. His family
says otherwise. “Junaid was a member of the group, but not the admin when the
post was already shared, he was made the admin after the post has already
circulated and the real admins fled the group”.
He could not write his
exams as the court already denied him bail and he has already spent the last 5
months in jail. Police says it has commenced investigation if there were indeed
other admins in the group who left.
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