'You cannot say that I have blocked a thousand Web sites (operated by IS) and so I am happy.'
'They will immediately open another thousand such Web sites.'
Praveen Dixit, below left, who recently retired as Maharashtra's director general of police, tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore about tackling terrorists who make use of social media to influence young minds.
What kind of problems do social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook pose for policing?
These are just platforms, technologies (used by criminals and terrorists). These are advanced systems that make the use of the Internet to enable criminal activities and terrorism.
But technology is neutral and the person using a given technology may have good or bad intentions and accordingly makes use of such technologies.
Some may use it for criminal activity; some may use it for wrong advocacies; it all depends on the mentality of people using these technologies.
One cannot find fault with a technology if it is used by wrong people for wrong purposes. But whenever people with such criminal intent are found they must be tackled according to existing laws.
What measures need to be taken or are taken to deal with such people?
Every city, including a big city like Mumbai, has a large number of cyber experts whose help should be sought to expose those using these technologies for criminal or terrorist activities.
Such activities can be brought to the notice of local police stations. Or, the police can and must co-opt cyber experts to find out more about the misuse of these technologies.
For example, a private service in Pune has opened a cyber helpline. It is possible that all victims of cyber crime may not go directly to the police.
Specifically speaking, how does one neutralise the influence of terrorist organisations like IS (Islamic State) have on young minds by using social media?
IS keeps on spreading their propaganda and attracting young minds across various spaces.
Once you notice their propaganda on a given Web site and you proceed to block it, they go for a new one the moment it is blocked.
You cannot say that I have blocked a thousand Web sites and so I am happy. They will immediately open another thousand such Web sites. It is an untiring, continuous process.
The other way to deal with such influence in India is to have thousands of police friends ('police mitra'), systematically ensconced in various localities in small groups, who can report directly to the police about any such incident of terror brainwashing.
The police, too, has its informants who are part and parcel of groups that indulge in such terror activities and anybody coming across any wrongdoing shares it with the police immediately.
Does the Maharashtra police have an advanced technological backbone to tackle IS propaganda on social media?
There is no problem here (in Maharashtra), though one can never say that we are foolproof and we are comprehensive. You have to take help of cyber experts, you have to take help of society and other people.
It is a collective effort and only through such efforts can this (neutralising the spread of IS propaganda online) happen.
In addition, we had also organised seminars for creating awareness in colleges and universities everywhere (across the state), where cyber experts, parents, teachers, and students would come together and they are sensitised about such things.
As far as IS is concerned, a lot of senior Muslim leaders have come forward and through whom these seminars and workshops have been organised in all the sensitive pockets in Maharashtra. And this has created a very good impact.
Is Parbhani (in Maharashtra) emerging as a hub for IS recruiters? Reports these days speak of IS 'commanders' being arrested from Parbhani.
It could be a specific module, which is being identified and neutralised.
One must understand that this (neutralising IS or any terror module that operates online) is a challenging area and there are no easy solutions.
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