The Pune Police have inaugurated a Social Media Lab to help monitor issues related to unlawful practices and activities on networking websites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, reports the Times of India. The new cell will consist of 18 policemen at the 24/7 lab working in 8 hour shifts. The police mention that the policemen have been trained over the last 2 months to monitor the movements of suspicious people. Additionally a software solution developed by Intelligent Quotient Security System will apparently monitor suspicious activities and alert the cops to take direct action. The Pune Police had help from the Mumbai Police which has had such a program operational for over two years. Interestingly the Pune Police mention that in cases of hate speech, it will take prompt action by ‘deleting’ the offending website. It's not clear if the agency means to say blocked (more likely), as it would be almost impossible to delete websites entirely, even those located in India, let alone those on servers outside the country. What is hate speech? Beside the obvious lack of understanding by saying the police will delete websites, the other problem is it's really not clear what will be defined as hate speech. Neither do the police mention what ‘prompt action’ will be taken other than blocking or ‘deleting’ the so called websites. Additionally, other than hate speech, the cops also promise to take ‘prompt action’ against ponzi schemes, spreading rumours and financial frauds. While the move might be well intentioned, cops…
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