Amaravati protests: Old and unrelated videos created panic among public

Amaravati: Amidst ongoing protests against the proposed three capitals for Andhra Pradesh, a set of photos and videos went viral on social media with a claim that they belonged to the Amaravati protests, on Friday, which created panic among the public across the state.

The video claims that an identified man committed suicide by catching an electric transformer in Amaravati villages. The narration along the video explains that the person committed suicide because of the unlawful arrest of the police.

In fact, the cross-check of The Hans India found that it was not related to any happenings in Amaravati. The footage was an old one happened in some other state, not in Andhra Pradesh. The voices in the video appear to be the Tamil language. When this correspondent tried to trace from where the video being circulated, it went in vain.

In the second instance, a bunch of photos of bleeding young girl were circulated. In which, the claim was the girl got severe injuries in the police lathi-charge on Friday. But, the reverse image search on google revealed with us that, the same photo was misused many occasions in the past. The same photo was misrepresented during the protests of Citizenship Amendment Act too. It was widely circulated in various countries on social media.

The spread of false, fabricated and unrelated photos and videos created panic among the public, as the farmers and the public have been organising genuine protests at Amaravati and other parts of the state, observed K Srinivasa Rao, a person who expressed fear of seeing the unrelated video and photos.

The protestors observed that some vested untested people might resort to such unethical practices in order to divert the attention and lower the intensity of the agitation. On the other hand, both TDP and YSRCP leaders started blaming each other on social media for the spread of unrelated videos.

Meanwhile, the office of Vineet Brijlal, Inspector General of Police warned that they will take stringent action on the people who spread such provocative videos. He urged the public not to believe false and fabricated videos. He explained that some people were spreading the video to create law and order problems across the state. The IG also urged the media to restrain from airing or publishing such untruth.