Speaking to The Hindu, Additional Commissioner of Police, Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO), Sanjay Bhatia said the police were “keeping a close watch on social media” and had put systems in place to prevent potential “cyber mishaps” during the summit.
The police’s social media monitoring is carried out through a dedicated Social Media Cell at police headquarters and specialised units such as the IFSO. Software tools scan publicly available posts, captions and comments on platforms including X, Instagram and Facebook using specific keywords and hashtags, as per officials aware of the arrangements.
The keywords serve as an early-warning mechanism. Content related to protests, communal tension, threats, illegal activities, the glorification of weapons, abusive or threatening remarks against public figures or institutions, and misinformation, fake news or manipulated content are the key targets.
The monitoring is not limited to searching for individual posts.
Digital monitoring tools and open-source intelligence techniques can help identify patterns, including groups of accounts repeatedly discussing or promoting illegal activity. Once an account is flagged, personnel can examine its publicly available followers, following lists, likes, tagged locations and other interactions to identify links with other accounts posting similar content or showing possible connections to criminal or illegal activities.
Once potentially objectionable content is flagged, it is assessed by the monitoring teams for its context and possible legal or security implications. The police then approach social media platforms for removal of unlawful content by issuing “takedown notices” or seek information relating to accounts.
Posts that amount to offences such as criminal intimidation, incitement or hate speech can lead to registration of an FIR and further investigation.
An official said the focus on social media surveillance and what the police describe as “cyber warfare” has increased considerably since the student protest by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar in July. The police are now also seeking to ensure that their own official information reaches users more effectively, rather than allowing the digital conversation around major incidents to be dominated by hostile or misleading content.
This involves working with technology platforms and using established mechanisms for official accounts and verified public information to improve the visibility and distribution of police advisories, clarifications and other public-safety information, the official said. “The objective is to ensure that verified information appears prominently when users search for or encounter content relating to a particular incident or issue,” said the official requesting anonymity.
