Meerut: UP Police has finally come up with a solution to the persistent problem of fake news on social media, especially Twitter, “maligning” the department’s image. The state police will soon launch a separate Twitter handle that will be used to name people posting “fake news” and clarify certain events that show cops in bad light.

“We are coming up with a separate official handle which will tweet out the names of mischievous Twitter users and the incidents which are either fake or wrongly attributed to UP Police deliberately or inadvertently. There are several Twitter handles which consistently target us over fake news that is often communally sensitive. Such users don’t retract even after our repeated clarifications,” said Rahul Srivastava, PRO to UP Director General of Police, Sulkhan Singh. Earlier, the department had made it a point to hunt down all fake tweets, mostly containing communally sensitive old videos.

Recently, UP Police was tagged in tweets highlighting a news story in which donkeys were reportedly lodged in Urai jail for eating “expensive plants”. The post drew sharp criticism from twitterati, who lambasted cops for their bizarre actions. A red-faced police department had to issue a detailed clarification and also named a few media houses which had wrongly attributed the action to the cops.

“The idea is to reach out to maximum number of people after fake news concerning the department goes viral. Our main @uppolice twitter handle is already burdened with official tweets. The new handle would be dedicated at hunting down fake information and replacing it with facts so that people do not form a wrong opinion,” Srivastava said.

On Wednesday, the PRO took to Twitter to show how they would identify a user and rebut him. “Dear @AnkitSahu we are now launching a separate twitter handle for fake news on @uppolice and your tweet will definitely get a place there. Thank you,” Srivastava tweeted. The post was retweeted 150 times by other users.

Earlier, the department had made it a point to trace all fake tweets, mostly containing old, communally sensitive videos. “Users would dig up old videos and revive a communally sensitive issue by tweeting them. It was done completely out of context. We not only issued clarifications but also took action against such people,” Srivastava said.