Telangana IPS Officer fights fake news, undertakes public awareness campaign

In the wake of the continuous fake messages being spread via WhatsApp regarding child kidnappers, an IPS officer from Telangana has taken up the task of spreading awareness to make people cautious about rumours.

With the social media rumours fuelling, mobs in villages have already killed several people with at least six lives lost in the last two months in WhatsApp-related mob attacks in Assam, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

The IPS officer, Rema Rajeshwari is undertaking a public awareness programme regarding rumours of child kidnappers and communal violence which has already reached people in 400 villages in Telangana.

Urging the public to spread such fake messages nor take the law into their hands over strangers, the IPS officer said that the rise in messages was witnessed around recent state elections in Karnataka, and feared that this might spread further ahead of national polls.

The police superintendent’s campaign seems to be receiving a positive response as no fake news-related deaths have been reported in more than 400 villages under her control in Telangana recently.

Her campaign in Telangana’s Palamuru region has relieved the villagers from the bogus threat of roving murderers and child kidnappers.