13 hours Ago By Ishika Gupta
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has announced the state-wide deployment of “digital warriors” to tackle fake news online and generate awareness about cybercrime, as per reports . The initiative was launched at the Mahakumbh Mela 2025 and has successfully combatted misinformation, claims the Director General of Police (DGP) Prashant Kumar. The program builds on the UP police’s 2018 initiative , which sought to develop a contingent of digital volunteers to counter fake news spread on social media by “anti-social elements.
” More than 10 lakh digital volunteers and 2 lakh police officers joined the program’s WhatsApp community groups as of 2023. What does the initiative entail? Interested applicants can apply for the program through a Google form, and the same extends primarily to college/university students and social media influencers. Workshops led by cybercrime experts, fact-checkers, and district cyber police officials in educational institutions will train these “warriors”, The Times of India reported .
Such institutions will also form ‘Cyber clubs’ to carry out activities like poster-making, video creation, etc to raise awareness about cybercrime and promote digital safety. The are four categories of “digital warriors” with each conducting specific tasks: These warriors must also furnish monthly reports detailing the fake news identified and police schemes publicised by them. Extension of Digital Media Policy 2024? The ‘Digital Warriors’ initiative reflects elements of the UP government’s Digital Media Policy 2024.
Launched in August, the policy sought to pay social media influencers to promote schemes and programs initiated by the government and conversely penalise those accused of promoting ‘anti-national’, ‘obscene’, or ‘inflammatory’ content. However, the policy received flak from multiple fronts raising concerns about the repression of marginalised voices and dissenters and explicit display of favouritism. While the state’s Digital Media Policy promoted government schemes, the newly-announced “digital warriors” initiative seeks to apply a similar formula to police campaigns in the state, praising “commendable” work.
However, while the policy paid the influencers from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 8 lakh depending on the category they belonged to, the “digital warriors” initiative is unpaid . What concerns does this raise? In 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs launched the “Cyber Crime Volunteers Program” which enabled citizens, termed “good samaritans” to flag “unlawful” content online, advocating for its removal. However, within three months of this launch, X (formerly Twitter) accounts of Hindutva Watch, an organisation documenting hate crimes and several others critical of the government were suspended abruptly, Reuters reported .
The particular instance highlighted the potential misuse of such initiatives to stifle dissent online without direct government involvement, enforcing indirect censorship. The Internet Freedom Foundation also raised concerns about the program’s threat to online free speech, lack of a verification process for volunteers, and its overall redundancy. Previously, the Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi police authorities had called upon citizens to register as “ cyber volunteers “, report social media content found “anti-national” or promoting radicalisation, and raise awareness about cybercrimes.
Notably, the authorities instructed such volunteers to maintain strict confidentiality of the assigned tasks and refrain from disclosing their association with the program. The program was termed “lateral surveillance” and was found to violate the right to privacy and free expression. Further, societal norms and biases could potentially influence cyber volunteers’ “digital decisions”.
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