BAREILLY: In what is being described as the first programme of its kind in Uttar Pradesh, Bareilly Zone Police in collaboration with the Influencers Community of Bareilly Zone organised "Connect Bareilly Zone – Influencers Meetup 2026" at Police Lines Auditorium on Saturday. "Over 100 social media influencers, digital content creators and digital volunteers from all nine districts participated," said Yash Gupta, a social media influencer.
He added, "Influencers were grouped into mixed district teams, named after rivers, for group discussions, interactive sessions and objective social surveys."
Police officers attended in civil dress and participants were given "Mitra Police" badges, underlining the event's community-outreach focus.
IPS officers educate influencers against chasing virality at the cost of social harmony. "Create content that spreads awareness, not hatred, one wrong post can vitiate the atmosphere," officers told participants.
Digital sessions covered cyber fraud, traffic rules, Mission Shakti, women's safety and the IT Act.
Pilibhit ASP Vikram Dahiya, addressing online fraud and cyber safety, told influencers that "digital arrest" has no legal basis and urged them to maintain separate personal and professional email IDs.
Pilibhit ASP Dr Natasha Goyal, citing Supreme Court cases and new BNS provisions, explained when unwanted content can invite criminal action.
She said that unverified posts touching on caste, religion or national security could trigger serious legal proceedings under the IT Act.
ADG (Bareilly Zone) Ramit Sharma told TOI, "Digital volunteers have served as an effective bridge between police and the community since 2015, and the meetup marks a significant step toward broadening that collaboration."
Elaborating how this concept began, ADG Sharma said, "In 2015, a couple in Baghpat eloped, following which the girl's family filed a writ petition in court, mentioning that a khap panchayat had ordered that the girl should be raped. A probe found that no such panchayat happened. An international media outlet got at least 4,50,000 tweets done on the issue, inviting police outrage. Back then, UP police debuted on Twitter (now X), but our reach was low, which led us to initiate the concept of digital volunteers.
In 2016, the UP DGP directed the creation of digital volunteers."
Krishna Chaudhary, a mass communication graduate, is a Senior Cor...
Read MoreKrishna Chaudhary, a mass communication graduate, is a Senior Correspondent covering the sugar belt of Western Uttar Pradesh. He loves reporting on crime, politics, and impactful human-interest stories.
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