The Ayodhya Police had on Tuesday, April 7, tweeted a video urging people to verify posts and news before putting it out on social media platforms. In the video, Superintendent of Police, Ashish Tiwari, also appealed the citizens to use the fact-checking website, Alt News, for verifying the posts. However, the tweet was soon deleted.
According to News Laundry, Tiwari in the video said, “Fake news is a major problem of our times. It means the kind of news which is false, misleading and can potentially create mistrust among people. This leads to a lot of rumours."
He added that the menace must be fought together and requested everybody's cooperation.
The SP further added, "You can help by not posting anything on social media without verifying. For this, you can use UP Police Viral Check and online platforms like Alt News and PIB Fact Check for the purpose. Please do this. Otherwise you can be punished under IT Act.”
Alt News co-founder Pratik Sinha shared the Ayodhya police’s tweet. He wrote, "Ayodhya Police recommends people to check @AltNews along with @UPViralCheck and @PIBFactCheck before sharing information on social media and chat apps such as WhatsApp."
Twitter/@Pokershasha
News Laundry's Manisha Pande was the first to point out that Ayodhya Police had deleted the video. She wrote, "Umm...did Ayodhya Police just delete the tweet?"
After a senior officer in the Ayodhya police was contacted, he said that it was surprising considering the importance of the message. "I will have to look into it before commenting further," he added requesting anonymity.
