Goa police start filing suo motu FIRs against ‘objectionable’ online content

Panaji: Goa police have registered several suo motu FIRs against people who post “objectionable statements”, “indecent comments” about women or other content that could “disturb public peace and harmony”.

From yoga workshops to memes and reels against politicians and political parties, the FIRs have mostly been registered against unidentified people. Police constables attached to the social media monitoring cell are the complainants.

An FIR has been filed against an unidentified person for posting a reel on Facebook, which contained edited visuals of traditional folk performers in a dramatised and satirical manner. It also contained portrayals of the chief minister with reference to recent controversial development projects like Unity Mall and Prashasan Stambh, which were ultimately scrapped by govt.

“The content was alleged to be misleading in nature, aimed at creating distrust against govt, and likely to disturb public peace and harmony within the state,” said constable Shivanand Naik Vernekar in his complaint.

In yet another case, constable Suraj Shirodkar said in his complaint that an unidentified person created and circulated a fake, manipulated and AI-generated video titled ‘Dabolim files’ containing false information on the closure of Dabolim airport. He said this was to “misinform the public, create confusion, damage the reputation of public authorities, incite distrust in governance, and disturb public peace and order” within the state.

In another complaint, Vernekar said unidentified persons made an abusive, obscene, and objectionable statement against political parties. He also said an unidentified individual made indecent remarks towards a woman and passed inflammatory statements regarding the ‘Viva Portugal’ issue.

Recently, there was a controversy in which a section of society, including freedom fighters, opposed Goans chanting ‘Viva Portugal’, while others said there’s nothing wrong in saying it.

The statements were “lascivious and prurient, could induce individuals or the community to commit an offence against public tranquility and create disharmony”, Vernekar said in his complaint, based on which an FIR was registered.

A French national recently had an FIR registered against him for organising a yoga workshop at Arambol. He has since approached the high court to quash the FIR.

“The said reel contains sexually suggestive and explicit narratives relating to sexuality and intimacy, projected as spiritual or healing practices and publicly accessible, and offensive to public decency, thereby misleading the public, affecting social harmony, public order and distorting the image of Goa and its tourism at national and international level,” constable Chandan Gaonkar had said in his complaint.

Advocate Siddharth Sardesai, who represents the Frenchman, said that this is not just harassment to the public but a directionless investigation.

“My client uploaded the details of his workshop on social media and the video was viewed by 6 lakh people, but not a single person filed a complaint. However, a police constable interpreted the post the way he wanted and filed a complaint against my client. This is the understanding of a constable about the Section 67A of the IT Act,” Sardesai said.