Cyber bullying: 300 social media accounts deactivated in Kashmir, probe launched

Around 300 social media accounts have been deactivated in Kashmir for their alleged involvement in cyber bullying.

As per the reports, over one dozen suspected summoned by kashmir police to its Srinagar headquarters last week for questioning.

“The accounts are not involved in political based cyber bullying,” reavelas the report.

SP Tahir Ashraf, in-charge, Cyber Police told The Print “We have been receiving many complaints of targetted harassment and threats. There is a group, which identifies one individual and collects all data about him/her. The data is sent to all members of the group, which coerces their target to post something on social media. If the target doesn’t agree, they are branded Indian stooges or Indian agents. The group has both girls and boys in it.”

Ashraf said the cyber unit has received more than 50 such complaints.

‘Coordinated online attack’

The officer said the group operates under various names.

Asked if individuals with a certain political ideology are the ones being targetted, he said: “It is a coordinated online attack and not on political lines.”

Ashraf added that while these 300-odd profiles are mostly on Twitter, there are also 4-5 websites on their radar.

“A lot of these Twitter accounts have been deactivated but we have details and we will be reaching out to them,” he said.

According to SP, the crackdown on the group was the culmination of a two-month operation run by a team of at least eight policemen led by an officer.

Ashraf said no cases have been filed yet, but investigations are under way.

Some activists in the Valley have, however, called the crackdown a “political witch hunt”.

The human rights activist Khuram Parvez, who is the coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, said: “Normally, the job of the cyber police is to crack down on cyber crimes. Crimes like online fraud are rampant and how many such cases has the police been able to solve in the last three years or specifically three months?”

He added, “Truth is that the police is more political than any other political party and they want to assert their politics by force. This questioning and summoning of people is part of that political witch hunt.”