Telangana Police uses folk songs to curb fake news; Twitterati showers praise

Hyderabad, Feb 21: Circulation of fake news soared ever since over 40 CRPF personnel were martyred in a dastardly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14.

False information was being passed around to provoke popular sentiments more and the Internet regulators had a tough time curbing the potentially dangerous trend.

The police in the state of Telangana has come up with a unique method to curb the menace of fake news henceforth.

The method is a traditional one whereby the police department is using 'Janapadam' - a local folk song storytelling tradition to educate villagers about fake news and its evil consequences.

A video has also gone viral showing Police Kalabrundam, a cultural troupe, alerting villagers through folk songs in Dokur village in Mahbubnagar district of the state.

"Storytelling is one of the most effective strategies we use as part of our interventions among rural communities. Be it educating them about exercising 'self-regulation' while using social media or informing them of the various citizen-centric activities we take up," Rema Rajeshwari, Mahbubnagar district police chief, wrote on Twitter.

Earlier this week, the CRPF issued an advisory asking people to not to circulate pictures of severed body parts of the soldiers martyred in Pulwama as it would fuel hatred.

It also issued another advisory on false messages that are being circulated on Internet about harassment of Kashmiri students.

Here is how the Twitterati reacted to the Telengana Police's method of curbing fake news: