Telangana DGP warns social media platforms against indulging in character assassination

Hyderabad, Jan 14 (IANS) Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) B. Shivadhar Reddy on Wednesday warned social media platforms not to indulge in character assassination.

Expressing his anger over the character assassination taking place on social media platforms, the DGP, in a statement, made it clear that spreading false news about other individuals and their family members, making false accusations, circulating fake news, and interfering in personal lives will not be tolerated.

The DGP said that they have no objection to constructive criticism and opinions expressed within the bounds of the law. However, he warned that if those limits are crossed and social media is misused to spread falsehoods, strict action will be taken against the individuals concerned.

The police chief recalled that after taking over as the DGP on October 1 last year, he had provided guidelines on the use of social media and made it clear that strict action would be taken against those who act beyond the limits of the law.

He reiterated that their policy is to take legal action against anyone who engages in character assassination, harms the reputation of others, or commits acts of character assassination in the name of social media.

The DGP’s warning came amid the police investigation against some television channels and social media platforms for telecasting and circulating an alleged defamatory story about a minister and a woman IAS officer.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case on Wednesday arrested two journalists of Telugu news channel NTV.

The case was registered against NTV, T News and several other news channels, as well as YouTube channels and social media handles, on a complaint filed by Special Chief Secretary Jayesh Ranjan on behalf of the IAS Officers’ Association.

Jayesh Ranjan, who is Secretary of the Telangana IAS Officers’ Association, stated in his complaint that on January 8, NTV published and telecast a news item regarding a woman IAS officer that was “completely false, fabricated and baseless”.

The complainant said that unsubstantiated allegations were made against a serving woman IAS officer, insinuating an alleged personal relationship with a political executive and attempting to link her official postings to such baseless claims.

The eight-member SIT is also probing the case relating to the sharing of an “obscene and humiliating” image of the Chief Minister in a WhatsApp group.

–IANS

ms/vd