The Bihar Police on Friday issued a clarification of the government’s new order pertaining to social media posts, NDTV reported. This came a day after the Bihar government decided that defamatory and offensive social media posts against ministers, parliamentarians and other officials will be categorised as cyber crimes.
The state police, however, clarified that “constructive criticism was welcome”, and action may be taken only against social media posts that use “insulting language” to spread rumours.
“Criticism is healthy for democracy,” Additional Director General (Headquarters) Jitendra Kumar told NDTV. “But criticism must be constructive and the language used must fall within the norms of decency. This advisory was issued keeping in mind rumours and factually incorrect information and involving the use of insulting language on social media – these are punishable offences under the IT Act.”
On Thursday, during the announcement of the order,…