‘ISIS’, ‘IS’, ‘Syria’ and ‘Jihad’ are currently the top
keywords Mumbai Police are keeping tabs on. Police officials trawling
Facebook and Twitter say the number of people searching for these
keywords is “considerably high”.
The Mumbai Police’s
Social Media Lab was inaugurated in 2013 to keep tabs on social media
and get a better sense of the public mood, to prevent potential law and
order problems.
With the rise of the Islamic State
(IS) and its significant presence on the Internet, the police are now
making use of specially developed tools to flag relevant keywords.
“We
earlier had tools set to identify keywords pertaining to historic,
religious and political figures, as there was a huge controversy in 2014
about objectionable content regarding such figures. Over the last few
months, we have redefined our parameters and currently, the IS and
related words are a priority,” said a senior Mumbai Police officer.
The
officer said that a majority of the people still search for ‘ISIS” even
though the terrorist outfit now calls itself IS, and hence ‘ISIS’ is
also among the list of constant keywords, along with ‘Syria’ and
‘Jihad’.
Apart from these fixed keywords, the police
also keep adding and removing keywords depending on events in the
country and around the world. “Currently, in light of the Pathankot
terror strikes, we have added ‘Jaish-e-Mohammed’ to our list of
keywords,” said a source.
Other than watching the
social media space for who is searching for the IS, the police are also
quick to block posts that are potentially inflammatory. Almost every
day, the Cyber Cell of the Mumbai Police receives reports about posts
containing the keywords that are flagged by its tools.
The
data is then analysed, and accounts that are found to be searching for
flagged keywords a large number of times are viewed and the content
shared by them studied. Posts about the IS or any content that is
communally sensitive are then identified, after which a report on these
posts is sent to Facebook authorities, requesting that they be blocked.
An
IPS officer, while refusing to share specifics, said: “ISIS and related
keywords are among the most searched in Mumbai. What is also worrying
is that a majority of the posts that we block on Facebook are communally
inflammatory in nature.”
The IS is a matter of
particular concern when it comes to watching cyberspace, as it has a
huge presence online, including videos on YouTube, Twitter accounts and
Facebook accounts.
Kalyan native Areeb Majeed, who
fled the country to join the IS in 2014 and was subsequently brought
back to India, is reported to have been radicalised online, while
Malwani youth Ayaz Sultan, who is suspected to have joined the IS, was
active on the Internet.
-the hindu
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