Censorship

The Centre has blocked around 100 social media accounts days after it asked police chiefs of all states and Union Territories to monitor suspicious activities or attempts being made to disturb the communal harmony and law and order situation before the Ram Temple consecration ceremony to be held on Monday, January 22.

Sources said a team of cyber experts, comprising officers from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Information Technology, CERT-IN, and the Intelligence Bureau (IB), has been sent to Ayodhya to do real-time monitoring of associated websites.

“Any fake/deepfake videos on Shri Ram Mandir should be taken down immediately and such cases should be reported to MHA, Control Room in North Block. After finding some wrongful content, the Centre has blocked around 100 social media accounts from Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X,” a source said, adding authorities have also asked to be extra vigilant for fake news.