Delhi Police monitor social media ahead of New Delhi BRICS summit

Delhi Police are monitoring public social media posts ahead of the BRICS summit in New Delhi through a dedicated Social Media Cell at police headquarters and teams in the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit.

Police said the teams are reviewing posts, captions and comments on X, Instagram and Facebook using keywords and hashtags. Their focus includes material related to protests, communal tension, threats, illegal activity, weapon glorification, abusive or threatening remarks against public figures or institutions, and misinformation or manipulated content.

Police may review a flagged account’s publicly visible followers, interactions, likes and tagged locations to identify accounts that may be promoting illegal activity. Additional Commissioner of Police Sanjay Bhatia said the department had put systems in place to prevent possible “cyber mishaps” during the summit.

Where police consider content unlawful, they may request that platforms remove it or provide account-related information. Posts that police believe amount to criminal intimidation, incitement or hate speech may lead to an FIR and investigation. The department is also working to make its advisories and verified public-safety information more visible online.