New Delhi:The Congress is getting aggressive in countering fake news against its top leaders and will soon set up quick response teams across the country to deal with the menace. As part of the move, the party will set up structural systems from the central level down to the district level in the states to take quick legal action against fake news.
The plan will particularly be implemented in the three states and one Union Territory, which will go to polls over the next few months. The move to get aggressive comes in the wake of the new social media policy of the Uttar Pradesh government, which has prescribed action against social media posts considered anti-national.
“Fake news on social media has become a big problem. We will soon set up quick response teams to deal with the issue,” AICC legal department head Abhishek Singhvi told ETV Bharat.
Today a lot of garbage floats on social media. Recently, our teams got FIRs registered in some fake news instances and the posts were removed. But, we need to expand across the country. We will also be focusing on the issues arising out of the forthcoming Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and UT J&K,” he said.
Singhvi, who recently got elected to the Rajya Sabha again from Telangana, was also named the head of the legal department, which had been dealing with hundreds of complaints linked to the Election Commission and also the Right to Information Act.
The party’s social media cell had been countering fake news over the past few years, but now Congress feels the need to pursue them legally.