A growing trend among many WhatsApp and other messaging applications users to grossly misuse the same to the extent of landing at the gates of committing crimes like character assassination, identity thefts, spreading falsehood, defaming innocent persons, threatening, black-mailing, levelling imaginary and manufactured allegations, creating sensations and rumour mongering even to the extent of spreading a vilified tirade against innocents is on the rise. Even short voice messaging too are circulated to spew all type of indecencies and vulgar demeanours to harass and defame innocent and even respectable persons in the society. Not only this , those who are gaining sheer “professionalism” in this blatant misuse go to the extent of resorting to misusing of identities of senior Government functionaries through e-mails , telephone numbers etc on the platforms like WhatsApp etc and in most of the cases the criminals get out of the net of the law .
Hacking , phishing, identity thefts, creating WhatsApp accounts purported to be “official accounts” of some social and political organisations and then misusing the platforms to the hilt, all go unchecked and rather unnoticed by the cybercrime Police and other law enforcing agencies. The material loaded in such WhattsApp platforms , at times, are such which even could create ill will and misunderstanding among groups of people belonging to different ideologies, faith and allegiance in the society and thus having the potentiality of leading to troubles and breach of peace. The victims of all these cyber attacks suffer silently and hardly get any justice in the normal course while the trend has assumed the proportions of a scourge.
However, the UT Government of Jammu and Kashmir has taken due but serious note of the activities of cyber criminals in Jammu and Kashmir who otherwise project to be ”heroes” while indulging in such criminal activities. In this connection, it is a welcome step taken by the Government by issuing an advisory over misusing of such platforms and a circular is issued by the General Administration Department wherein necessary instructions have been passed on to deal with the cybercriminals and to keep a watch over such criminals but in no case, act upon or take any action on the basis of false messaging against anyone unless properly authenticated and the entire onus to be on the one who floated such falsehood. Offices and departments in the UT too are sought to be sensitized. Cyber crimes need to be sternly but timely dealt with before the criminals, often in gentle and even ”intellectual” robe, succeed in heaping harm on their victims.
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