Several fake accounts created by people from Pakistan, have been trying to spread 'fake news' to discredit India, on social media platforms but it is the responsibility of the people to verify such information and not forward it at once, said Special Inspector General (SIG) of Police, Maharashtra Cyber on Saturday.
According to SIG, Brijesh Singh, it has been observed that several fake accounts with Indian names from Pakistan side are trying to spread inflammatory content over social media platforms, especially defaming the Indian Security Forces.
"Several fake accounts with Indian names are being made on social media. These accounts are posting inflammatory content. It was observed that such things are being done from the Pakistan side, a campaign is being undertaken," said Singh while speaking to .
"Fake videos are being circulated and photos are being used out of context to show as if genocide is taking place in Kashmir. The verified accounts in Pakistan are also sharing such fake news," Singh added.
Discussing a recent fake news incident, Singh told that a few days back, a military colonel's picture was posted on a social media platform and it was depicted that he will be leaving the Army.
"People create such fake accounts in a systematic manner and by adopting a particular kind of language. People should be aware of such accounts and they should visit the profile and check it thoroughly. These accounts also post several screenshots which cannot be actually verified," said Singh.
Singh further appealed to people and said: "People should verify the information and not forward it at once especially if there's anti-national content where India, Army or Police is being shown in a bad light. They might have been manufactured to damage the reputation of our national institutions."
According to Singh, it has been observed that certain fake accounts that are nowadays spreading inflammatory information were created two-three years back. On investigating, it was revealed that such accounts did not use to post anything back then but recently they have been actively sharing fake content on social media.
"Certain accounts share outdated images or videos so verifying such content is difficult but what general public can do is, they can simply put that image on Google search engine and it will show how old that image is, in case the content is outdated," Singh added.
( With inputs from ANI )