Over the past five years, police forces across States have dedicated significant resources to monitoring social media platforms, an analysis of police infrastructure data shows. The number of dedicated social media monitoring cells rose from 262 across 28 States and eight Union Territories as of January 1, 2020, to 365 as of January 1, 2024.
Most of such cells are operational in Bihar (52), Maharashtra (50), Punjab (48), West Bengal (38) and Assam (37).
In Manipur, where large-scale ethnic violence erupted on May 3, 2023, the number of police social media monitoring cells rose from 3 on January 1, 2020, to 16 on January 1, 2024. The expansion occurred despite the Internet being suspended in the State for about 140 days in 2023.
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Assam increased the number of social media monitoring cells from 1 in 2022 to 37 in 2024. West Bengal expanded its network from 2 to 38 cells, while Punjab doubled its capacity, increasing the number from 24 to 48 between 2022 and 2024.
