Uttar Pradesh Police to launch a new Twitter handle to counter users who post fake news
The move comes days after reports said the state police department had detained four donkeys for four days.
The Uttar Pradesh Police is planning to soon launch an account on Twitter that will be used to name people who are found posting false news that show police personnel in a bad light, The Times of India reported.
This comes days after reports said that the Uttar Pradesh Police had detained four donkeys for four days for eating expensive plants. The department had then denied the media reports.
“We are coming up with a separate official handle which will tweet out the names of mischievous Twitter users and the incidents which are either fake or wrongly attributed to the Uttar Pradesh Police deliberately or inadvertently,” Rahul Srivastava, public relations officer to UP Director General of Police Sulkhan Singh, told The Times of India. “There are several Twitter handles which consistently target us over fake news that is often communally sensitive. Such users don’t retract even after our repeated clarifications.”
Srivastava said some users would dig up old videos and tweet them to revive a communally sensitive matter.
On Wednesday, Srivastava had warned a Twitter user for sharing a fake news report about the UP police. “We are going to launch a separate Twitter handle for fake news on @uppolice and your tweet will definitely get a place there. Thank you,” the PRO had said.