The recent incident of communal riots in the sub-district of Badurai in West Bengal, triggered by an objectionable post on Facebook is not the first time the state is witnessing something like this.
Looking at the past incidents, social media has become a way of instigating disharmony in the society. West Bengal has witnessed as many as 7 communal riots in past one month due to social media posts.
A 17-year-old boy posted some objectionable post on Facebook on 2 July, which resulted in an angry mob torching around 12 police vehicles, looting and ransacking several houses in the area, around 25 people including 20 policemen and an RSS worker killed. A few days before this incident, another similar scenario took place near Mohammad Bazar in Birbhum, also a result of an offensive post by a teenager on the social media. Another reported incident was on 14 June, when a school teacher at Harishchandrapur in Malda instigated the tension.
Taking immediate action to stop these postings, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced to form a team of around 60,000 booth level peace committees across the state. During a media conference on Tuesday over the CM’s clash with the WB Governor, Banerjee announced that these committees will be created at the booth level comprising members from all religious communities and this would be West Bengal government’s Quick Response Team (QRT) for the future. She said that “It has become a design to use the social media platform to foment trouble and create instability in the state.”
The government has also taken a few other measures to control the situation like setting up a cyber-surveillance team and circulating a video Bengal DG appealing the people to stop posting offensive posts.
The government has set up a cyber-surveillance team and said that IT Act will be imposed against the offenders and will immediately curtail the internet facilities if required. A video clip of Bengal DG, Surajit Kar Purkayastha is also being circulated in the state, appealing to the masses to be responsible and not share or pay attention to any such post on social media. The Kolkatta police officials have also launched an awareness campaign to make the people aware of false posts and not to react impulsively to them.
A senior police official said that the police gets at least 300 complaints every month regarding social media crimes and offensive post. He said that the police immediately tracks the users and take appropriate action against them. He also said that actions will also be taken against WhatsApp groups where videos, audio and images of rioting are being circulated.