With the view to fighting rampant misinformation on social media, the Tamil Nadu police have come up with the venture of installing cyber wings across all the districts. The announcement about this pioneering system was made on Monday - September 5 and these cyber wings would be formed based on the order from Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police (DGP) Sylendra Babu. 

As per the announcement, such cyber wings will be formed in 37 districts, including Chennai to curb the spread of rumours that create social unrest on social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These units will dedicate themselves to monitoring these platforms and watching the people who publish and share such misinformation. 

In a press statement, the police said that the cyber wings have been set up to keenly observe people on these sites who publish and share information that leads to riots, fights, and chaos in various parts of the state. These wings will also play a vital role in preventing online sexual harassment, the sale of drugs and other banned substances, online financial fraudsters and arresting those who involve in these online crimes. 

These cyber wings will have a total of 203 police officers and these cops would be equipped with knowledge of cyberspace and experience in tracking people over the internet. As per the statement, these cyber wings will be headed by the Superintendent of Police of the Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Division. The police have said that setting up these wings and the action taken by them would help in subduing the caste, religious, and political disputes in the state. 

These disputes would rampantly spread on social media platforms which further would trigger tensions and violence. The press release stated that the cyber wings have been equipped to identify hateful and toxic content that can incite violence and cause social unrest and track them. The officers attached to these units will also ensure that the social media accounts that spread misinformation are suspended permanently. Furthermore, the officials of cyber wings will also aid citizens in registering their cybercrime complaints.