Odisha cops warn against circulating fake news

Bhubaneswar: Social media users, be aware! Posting fake news and making it viral on social media platforms can put you in jail.

The Commissionerate police decided to take strong action against a group of people active on social media for circulating news contents created without verifying fact.

Even the users may face arrest for deleting the post from social media handle after making it viral, police sources said.

The move came after a fake news was reportedly carried by a news portal on hefty challan against a vendor caught near Patia Big Bazaar area under Infocity police limits in Bhubaneswar yesterday.

As per the rumours, the police had imposed fine on a trolley belonging to a vendor namely Keshav Chandra Bhuyan by claiming it a police vehicle.

Within few hours of the post, the news item was removed from the site. However, few people posted the story on various social media platforms by taking screenshot of the news, following which the story went viral.

During the course of investigation into traffic challan incident, Infocity police found it as ‘completely false’.

Based on the probe report, the process has been initiated by the police to arrest the persons involved in making the fake news viral on social media as well as the news portal owner for publishing the post.