‘Copycat’ groups come to the fore-THE HINDU-06-05-2020

Details:

Cyber experts say the aim is to capitalise on the dubious fame and gain followers.

Even as the Delhi police cracked down on the ‘Bois Locker Room’, an Instagram page where teenage boys were allegedly discussing gangrape of minor girls, cyber experts have observed scores of ‘copycat’ groups with similar names or themes that were formed within hours of the matter becoming public knowledge. Cyber experts said the copycat groups were trying to capitalise on the dubious fame and gain followers.

Rumour-mongering:

He added that another fallout of the matter was the rumour-mongering that started either to take focus away from the core issue or to malign others in a similar way with fabricated evidence. Supposed screenshots of chats from a Delhi-based group where members ostensibly admitted to having taken advantage of a girl started doing the rounds on Twitter on Monday evening, but could not be verified. Singh said, who has received calls from several people to discuss cyber crime.

He referred to a similar case that had come to light in a Mumbai-based school last year, where there was ultimately no police case, nor were there any steps taken by other schools to spread awareness.