The Delhi police special cell’s plan of setting up a “social media monitoring cell” to keep tabs on suspicious radical and terrorist activities in the national capital, will comprise of 15 officials,
The Delhi police special cell’s plan of setting up a “social media monitoring cell” to keep tabs on suspicious radical and terrorist activities in the national capital, will comprise of 15 officials, who will get special training in government and private institutions on how to track the nitty gritty of various social media platforms.
The team will include cyber experts, hackers and officials who will have complete knowledge on various hardwares and softwares. They will also be trained in developing the required softwares and on how to work with various hardwares that will be used in the monitoring cell, said a senior police official.
“Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and even LinkdIn are vast platforms which cannot be easily monitored. Our officials will undergo training to detect any suspicious terrorist activities quickly in such social media spaces. It has been seen in the past that terror groups, like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), have spread propaganda and recruited through such platforms. Hence, the commissioner of police came up with this initiative. The monitoring cell will be fully functional within the next three months,” said special commissioner (special cell) Arvind Deep.
Apart from the 15 officials, the team will have cyber consultants from the force and outside as well, who will collaborate and advice the officials on the strategy for monitoring, he added.
Talking about the mechanism behind monitoring activities, a source said, “Any profile having a picture of any terrorist or the logo of any terror outfit will be thoroughly checked and followed so that any further updates from such profiles will be in the knowledge of the police. Terrorists can also interact using code language for which there will be officials in the monitoring cell who will be able to detect the psychological intention behind them.” The monitoring cell will be set up inside the special cell’s heavily-guarded headquarters at Lodhi Colony.
