Highlights:
- Nitish Kumar decides that “anti-government” posts on social media could send people in jail
- Bihar was among the few states who were lenient on online views and comments.
- Offensive social media posts have now been brought under cybercrime in Bihar.
The government of Bihar has decided to bring the offensive and defamatory posts on social media against the government or its ministers or other officials under the umbrella of cybercrime, which is a direct sign of how rattled the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, is by the criticism he has faced over the social media platforms.
In the past, he has lashed out at such commentary but now he has ordered the state Police’s Economic Offenses Wing, the nodal point for crime like these, to report and also act those who make them.
Bihar was among the few states in India who rarely acted against offensive views and comments over the internet, but a written to all the secretaries of the state government from Inspector General (IG) Nayyar Husnain Khan, Chief of the Economic Offenses Wing, has changed everything.
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IG Khan, in the letter, wrote, “It has come to light that certain persons and organisations have been making defamatory and offensive comments on social media against the government, respected ministers, parliamentarians, legislators, and government officials”.
The letter also read, “This is against prescribed law and comes under the category of cybercrime”.
The senior Police Officer from Bihar then requested all of the officials to inform the Economic Offences Wing of any such acts so the perpetrators can be brought before a court for justice.
The anger of Bihar’s CM at social media is an open secret. Among all of the public speeches – official as well as party fora – he calls out instances where disinformation against his government was circulated using Social Media platforms.
Nitish Kumar also urged his supporters of not believing such social media posts.
However, it is only now that his government has decided to act tough.
Responding to the letter from IG Khan, Tejaswi Yadav, Leader of the opposition in Bihar, on Friday, called out Nitish Kumar the “Bheeshm Pitamah” of the corrupt and the “protector of criminals”.
