Derogatory social media posts, sloganeering hit peacekeeping attempts in Kozhikode

Party offices in politically sensitive areas face safety threat

Provocative sloganeering and inciting social media posts by a section of CPI(M) and Congress activists have seriously hit the ongoing peacekeeping measures initiated by the police in politically sensitive areas of Kozhikode. Attacks on party offices are still continuing in rural areas with a few senior local leaders reluctant to call for a truce.

Despite an appeal for intensified legal action, the cyber patrol to track suspected social media accounts spreading hatred and messages of violence is yet to be successful. There is also a suspicious increase in the number of fake accounts created to fuel tension by posting derogatory comments against senior politicians, media persons, and religious leaders.

“The biggest provocation is the creation of derisive trolls, distorted images, and videos for insulting political leaders in public. It is, in fact, triggering an urge for more violence and retorts,” said a Congress functionary from Perambra where the office of the party was attacked on Wednesday. He said many youths were highly reactive to derogatory posts, and that there should be better efforts to expose such attempts.

CPI(M) functionaries also claimed that there were concerted attempts on the part of their rivals to spoil the image of the party with fabricated social media posts and images. The comment boxes of leading news channels on YouTube are examples of such planned mudslinging, where there is no controlling mechanism in place to expose those using inflammatory and abusive language during live programmes, they criticised.

According to police sources, the hi-tech cell is now in a situation to monitor only grave cases that affect the State’s security and communal harmony in the wake of the flooding number of complaints. It is difficult to attend to a large number of regional cases simultaneously in the absence of proper written petitions and digital evidence, they said.

At the same time, senior police officers confirm that the Station House Officers have been asked to keep an eye on serious local developments in various sensitive areas under their jurisdiction. Social media posts that call for attack on party offices and workers will be instantly brought to the attention of the district cyber cell for prompt action, they said.