Mumbai police have set up India's first "social media lab" to monitor Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites, sparking concerns about freedom of speech online. A specially-trained team of 20 police officers will staff the lab, which was launched over the weekend and will work around the clock to keep an eye on issues being publicly discussed and track matters relating to public order.
"They will work under Special Branch. They will monitor and find out which topics are trending among the youth so we can plan law and order in a good way," police spokesman Satyanarayan Choudhary told AFP on Monday. In November police sparked outrage and fierce debate about India's Internet laws by arresting two young women over a Facebook post criticising the shutdown of Mumbai after the death of a local hard-line politician.
The pair were arrested under laws including section 66a of the Information Technology Act, which forbids "sending false and offensive messages through communication services" and can lead to three years in jail. The case followed several arrests across the country for political cartoons or comments made online.