{"id":4888,"date":"2019-03-18T10:29:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T04:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/34.22.110.190\/english\/?p=4888"},"modified":"2019-03-18T18:16:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-18T12:46:28","slug":"this-letter-asking-people-to-abstain-from-sharing-political-posts-online-was-not-issued-by-the-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/this-letter-asking-people-to-abstain-from-sharing-political-posts-online-was-not-issued-by-the-govt\/","title":{"rendered":"This letter asking people to abstain from sharing political posts online was NOT issued by the govt"},"content":{"rendered":"

A letter viral on social media, with many presuming that it is a government order for social media users, is notifying people to abstain from using Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram to share political propaganda posts before the 2019 elections.\u00a0\u201cDo not share election-related posts, photographs and posters,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>reads the \u2018notice\u2019 circulated under the name of \u2018Crime Prevention Council of India.\u2019<\/p>\n

The letter reads \u2013\u00a0\u201c\u0938\u094b\u0936\u0932 \u092e\u0940\u0921\u093f\u092f\u093e \u0938\u0947 \u091c\u0941\u0921\u093c\u0947 Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp \u0914\u0930 Other Networks \u0915\u0947 \u092e\u093e\u0927\u094d\u092f\u0917 \u0938\u0947 \u0915\u094b\u0908 \u092d\u0940 \u0935\u094d\u092f\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0906\u0917\u093e\u092e\u0940 \u091a\u0941\u0928\u093e\u0935 2019 \u0915\u0947 \u0926\u094c\u0930\u093e\u0928 \u091a\u0941\u0928\u093e\u0935 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u091a\u093e\u0930 \u0938\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0928\u094d\u0927\u093f\u0924 \u092a\u094b\u0938\u094d\u091f, \u092b\u094b\u091f\u094b, \u092c\u0948\u0928\u0930 \u0906\u0926\u093f \u0915\u094b \u090f\u0915 \u0926\u0942\u0938\u0930\u0947 \u0915\u094b \u0928 \u092d\u0947\u091c\u0947\u0902 ! (Social media users connected to Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other networks do not share political propaganda posts, photos and posters, before the coming elections.)\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The concluding lines of the letter warn action by district-level special surveillance team of the Election Commission \u2013\u00a0\u201c\u091a\u0941\u0928\u093e\u0935 \u0906\u092f\u094b\u0917 \u0915\u0940 \u091c\u093f\u0932\u093e \u0938\u094d\u0924\u0930\u0940\u092f Special Surveillance Team \u0926\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0930\u093e \u0915\u093e\u0930\u094d\u092f\u0935\u093e\u0939\u0940 \u092d\u0940 \u0915\u0940 \u091c\u093e \u0938\u0915\u0924\u0940 \u0939\u0948\u0964\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Several social media users have\u00a0shared<\/a>\u00a0the notice assuming it to be a government order.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Many individual users have also sent queries to Alt News regarding the authenticity of the letter.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not issued by the government<\/h2>\n

While the name of the organisation might allude that it is affiliated to the government, facts prove otherwise. Alt News visited the site of \u2018Crime Prevention Council of India (CPCI)\u2019 \u2013\u00a0www.cpcindiaonline.com<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and the site\u2019s URL itself makes it\u00a0evident that the organisation is not a part of the government.<\/p>\n

All government websites either end with \u201cgov.in\u201d or \u201cnic.in\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The URL of the \u2018Crime Prevention Council of India\u2019 ends with a \u2018.com\u2019 while websites of the Indian government either end with a \u2018gov.in\u2019 or \u2018nic.in\u2019.<\/p>\n

The official website of any ministry or government department always ends with the domain \u201cgov.in\u201d. For example \u2013\u00a0Ministry of External Affairs<\/a>\u00a0(mea.gov.in),\u00a0Government of Uttarakhand<\/a>\u00a0(uk.gov.in),\u00a0Swachh Bharat<\/a>\u00a0(swachhbharatmission.gov.in),\u00a0Prasar Bharati<\/a>\u00a0(prasarbharati.gov.in).<\/p>\n

The website of any organisation affiliated to the Indian government ends with a \u2018nic.in\u2019. Domain name \u2018nic.in\u2019 is owned by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which is the science and technology organisation of the Government of India under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. \u2018Nic.in\u2019 can be allocated only to Indian government entities. For instance,\u00a0Central Board of Secondary Education<\/a>\u00a0(cbse.nic.in),\u00a0Indian Institute of Mass Communication<\/a>\u00a0(iimc.nic.in).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What is the \u2018Crime Prevention Council of India\u2019?<\/h2>\n

The organisation is a\u00a0non-governmental establishment<\/strong>.\u00a0\u201cWe are an NGO that works towards reducing crime in the country via awareness programs, workshops, seminars, etc. A lot of our work also involves partnering with the government,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>said Dr SK Pandey, Chairman of CPCI, to Alt News.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe letter viral on social media was wrongly issued by a member of CPCI and not the organisation. He should not have issued the letter as a \u2018notice\u2019 but only as a suggestion in public interest. The concerned person \u2013 District Officer Narendra Singh \u2013 has now been terminated from his position and is not associated with the organisation any more,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>added Dr Pandey.<\/p>\n

Dr Pandey has also issued a letter on behalf of CPCI, clarifying that the earlier \u2018notice\u2019 was not issued by the organisation but a faulting district officer who has now been recused from his role. The letter also mentions that the Crime Prevention Council of India is a non-governmental organisation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The letter doing rounds on social media, notifying people to abstain from posting political propaganda content before the elections, was, thus, not issued by the government. It was merely a suggestion in public interest issued by a member of a non-governmental organisation. The NGO has, however, informed that the concerned member wrongly issued the letter.<\/p>\n

Despite the illusion of a government notice, social media users could have avoided falling for the letter by carefully analysing its tone and the organisation\u2019s website URL provided at the bottom. Even though the letter gave the impression of a warning, it did not mention \u2018Government of India\u2019 or the name of any ministry. Moreover, the URL provided at the bottom ended with a \u2018.com\u2019 domain, which was sufficient to establish that the organisation was not a government entity.<\/p>\n

[This report was first published by\u00a0Alt News<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A letter viral on social media, with many presuming that it is a government order for social media users, is notifying people to abstain from using Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram to share political propaganda posts before the 2019 elections.\u00a0\u201cDo not share election-related posts, photographs and posters,\u201d\u00a0reads the \u2018notice\u2019 circulated under the name of \u2018Crime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":4890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"tmauthors":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4888"},{"taxonomy":"tmauthors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebengalstory.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tmauthors?post=4888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}