SRINAGAR: District Magistrate Shopian, Fazlul Haseeb, issued an order on Thursday urging netizens in the district to refrain from the misuse of social media platforms.
The order states, “Some individuals or groups with anti-national inclinations are misusing social media platforms to ‘prepare,’ ‘post,’ ‘spread,’ ‘propagate,’ or ‘share’ incendiary messages and propaganda from terrorist and separatist outfits.”
“These activities aim to: a) glorify terrorists and their actions; b) intimidate and terrorise individuals, the general public, or specific sections of the public; c) incite violence by encouraging disaffection/hatred; d) promote terrorist and secessionist ideology along with false narratives; and e) foster hatred and ill-will on religious grounds, likely to disturb public order and tranquillity,” the order reads.
The order emphasises that such acts are prejudicial to the security of the state and the maintenance of law and order, with the potential to disturb public tranquillity. It further notes that these actions are intended to terrorise citizens and public functionaries, hindering them from carrying out their lawful duties.
“In exercise of powers conferred upon me (District Magistrate) by section 144 Cr. P.C 1973, I, Fazlul Haseeb, IAS, District Magistrate, Shopian, do hereby prohibit and order the general public to refrain from ‘posting,’ ‘uploading,’ or ‘propagating’ messages or content as mentioned with immediate effect within the limits of Shopian,” the order declares.
“This order will come into force with immediate effect,” it adds.
Earlier in the day, District Magistrate Kupwara, Ayushi Sudan, issued a similar order to internet users in the district.
The order from DM Kupwara echoes the concerns of misuse of social media platforms, emphasizing the same prejudicial impact on the security of the state, law and order, and public tranquillity.
An official order, issued by DM Kupwara reads that some anti-national persons or groups are resorting to misuse of social-media networking platforms on the internet by ‘preparing’ or ‘posting’ or ‘spreading’ or ‘propagating’ by way of ‘forwarding’ or ‘sharing’ incendiary messages and propaganda of terrorist and separatist outfits.
“Such activities are being carried out to glorify terrorist and their actions, intimidate and terrorise individuals or general public or sections of the public, exhort member(s) of the public to resort to violence by inciting, encouraging and spreading disaffection/hatred, propagate terrorist and secessionist ideology and false narratives and promoting fell of hatred, ill-will on religious ground and likely to disturb public order and tranquillity,” the order reads.
“Such acts on the part of these anti-national persons or groups are prejudicial to the security of the state, maintenance of law and order and are likely to disturb the public tranquillity. such acts on the part of these anti-national persons or groups are aimed at terrorising common citizens and public functionaries from discharging their lawful duties,” reads the order.
“In exercise of powers conferred upon me (District Magistrate) by section 144 CrPC 1973, I, Ayushi Sudan, IAS, District Magistrate, Kupwara do hereby prohibit and order the general public to refrain from ‘posting’ or ‘uploading’ or ‘propagating’ by way of ‘forwarding’ or ‘sharing’ any messages or content as mentioned with immediate effect within the limits of District Kupwara”, reads the order.
