Neither govt nor police requested Meta to remove news posts, says Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala

Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has said neither the State government nor the police has made a request to Meta to remove news items related to Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan or the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government from Facebook.

“Meta removed the posts. They have to explain why the posts were removed. The Kerala Police has not asked either officially or unofficially to remove any news cards from social media. The Chief Minister himself has already clarified that the government has not made any such demands,” he said.

Mr. Chennithala was speaking to mediapersons after the launch of three major projects of the Kerala Police – Integrated Beat Management System, AI track to reduce road accidents and Cyber wall to enhance cyber security.

Mr. Chennithala said the AI track system analyses data regarding road accidents from the past few years to identify danger spots and reduce accidents. The public will also get data on safer routes and the traffic situation in the routes they choose.

The smart beat patrol management system will integrate the various beats into a single digital platform for the convenience of the general public. The police station beat, law and order patrol, highway patrol, pink police, Janamaithri police and similar systems will be integrated into the platform. This will enable quicker delivery of services, said Mr. Chennithala.

The Cyber Wall system is an AI-enabled digital safety programme to stop various kinds of cyber fraud, including digital arrest, phishing, online payment fraud and fake customer care frauds.

Mr. Chennithala said that 600 police personnel have already been trained in using the applications. Training will be provided to more police officers soon.

On Governor summoning SPC

The Home Minister also said there was “nothing wrong” in Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar summoning State Police Chief (SPC) Ravada Chandrasekhar. “The police work as per the directives of the government, not according to that of the Governor. There is nothing wrong in him visiting when summoned,” he said.

The Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) had on Monday criticised the Governor’s summoning of the SPC in connection with the controversy surrounding the allegations raised by Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit (SSUS) Vice-Chancellor Ciza Thomas.