Over the past five years, police forces across States have dedicated significant resources to monitoring social media platforms, an analysis of police infrastructure data shows. The number of dedicated social media monitoring cells rose from 262 across 28 States and eight Union Territories as of January 1, 2020, to 365 as of January 1, 2024. In Manipur, where large-scale ethnic violence erupted on May 3, 2023, the number of police social media monitoring cells rose from 3 on January 1, 2020, to 16 on January 1, 2024. Assam increased the number of social media monitoring cells from 1 in 2022 to 37 in 2024. Earlier, social media monitoring cells were not counted separately or were part of the cybercrime police stations.

Source: The Hindu January 06, 2026 04:45 UTC