On Wednesday, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who is the Minister of Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and IT, told the Lok Sabha that the government has blocked over 1400 URLs under the drive to control the circulation of unethical and wrong material on the internet via Operation Sindoor. The project was initiated not long after a terrorist attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, where 25 tourists and one local pony guide died.
Answering a question by lawmaker Tejasvi Surya, Vaishnaw added that a number of social media accounts, most of which are run from abroad, were active in sharing false, misleading, and communally sensitive content. That kind of content, he added, directly threatened the national security and national peace.
The government also stated the blocking of these URLs, invoking Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which included websites, posts, and social media accounts during Operation Sindoor. As the minister pointed out, most of this content was first created by the Pakistan-based accounts and was aimed at spreading anti-India views to attack the Indian Armed Forces.
The government also established a 24/7 centralised control room to fight the misinformation. This facility was jointly manned by the defence forces, government media units, and the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in order to provide coordination in real time and a reaction to the emerging threats.
Join our whatsapp group for Latest updates
Click Here for Chhattisgarh News
Click Here for Entertainment News