J&K: Fighting Twitter warriors, keyboard guerrillas

Srinagar: The unconditional Ramzan truce announced by the government may have eased the situation on ground in Jammu and Kashmir as was claimed by its police chief, but his men continue to fight another battle “to maintain peace and harmony” in the state.

It is about combating hate and rumour mongering on social media platforms which, the police say, is a fairly difficult task.

“It is a huge problem which we are faced with and are trying to tackle without any fuss,” said director general of police  (DGP) Shesh Paul Vaid.

“There is a large brigade of Facebook and Twitter warriors and keyboard guerrillas whose pastime is posing a huge challenge to us,” said another senior officer. “Many of them routinely take to the social media to spread canard swhich only aggravate law and order situation,” he added.

But it is mainly hate and rumour mongering pastime of many social media users which is seen by the authorities as more perilous for the society as it has the potential of dividing it on ethnic, communal, regional and even sectarian lines.     

Explaining the issue further, DGP Vaid said, “Earlier if a person would choose to hurl abuse on someone or over some issue only a few people around him could hear or know about it. Now each filthy word placed on social media reaches out to millions of people within no time. It can have more dangerous fallout for the society.”

In July 2016 when the authorities, particularly the security forces, were trying to cope with a difficult situation thrown up by widespread disturbances in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, a rumour flouted by a Kashmiri Pandit netizen Ashok Koul put them in a tough spot.

Koul falsely wrote on his Facebook timeline “According to sources two Pandits killed in Kashmir as some village...many Hindu houses burnt... Internet services suspended.” The police quickly registered a case against him, forcing him to apologise.

Earlier,  the police FIR booked Ashish Kaul, an employee of a US consultancy company, after he in a series of tweets, not only condoned violence in Kashmir but also suggested that the people of the Valley should be “killed” economically as well.

A few days later, the police booked for the same offence another netizen, Arfat Bhat, who had  responed to the tweet surrounding the controversy set off by Mr Kaul’s hate-mongering.

Another Twitter user Pawan Durani drew the attention of J&K police and its chief Mr Vaid towards this abusive tweet and later Mr Bhat too was booked on charges of spreading hate and animosity between Kashmir’s majority Muslim community and minority Pandits(Brahmin Hindus).

Apart from keeping a check on hate and rumour mongering, the cybercrime cell of the J&K police is closely monitoring the activity of supporters and sympathisers of separatists. As they and also prominent separatist leaders and even militant commanders routinely use social media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, to spread their word, the authorities often snap internet and mobile phone services in the Valley in a somewhat time-tested manoeuvre aimed at impeding their public outreach.

The J&K government had in April 2017 imposed a blanket ban on 22 social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, in restive Kashmir Valley for a period of one month. But the harsh move not only evoked widespread criticism within the Valley and beyond it also failed soon as a vast majority of the users began accessing these platforms through virtual private networks (VPNs). In fact, their switching to VPNs not only helped them in bypassing censorship but also kept all online activities confidential and this in turn made a mockery of the official ban.

Meanwhile, snapping or curtailing the Internet and mobile phone services in view of possible flare-ups and real and perceived threats is, in fact, a phenomenon which has become irksome particularly to student and business communities and financial institutions and the media as it hinders their genuine activity. However, the authorities justify such blackouts saying that these have become unavoidable in order to prevent the misuse of social media and rumour-mongering during protests.