Police in India issued a statement saying that authorities had taken action against more than 8,270 posts with measures such as reporting the post to the social media platform where it was made and messaging the user to delete it.
Most of the content was on Twitter, followed by Facebook and Youtube. Eight people were arrested in Madhya Pradesh for inflammatory comments on social media while a warden in the city of Gwalior was arrested for setting off celebratory fireworks.
The court awarded the disputed religious site, Babri Majid, to Hindus on Saturday for the construction of Ram Mandir. In 1992, Babri Mosque had been destroyed by a Hindu mob, which had led to massive rioting in which 2000 people, majority of them Muslim, were killed.
No incident of major violence has been reported after the ruling. Authorities have revealed that they were dealing with the matter under a ‘zero tolerance approach’ towards potentially inflammatory content on social media and messaging applications like Whatsapp.
Authorities had arrested around 77 people till Sunday in Uttar Pradesh, the state which houses the disputed land.
Lucknow’s Additional Director General of Police for Law and Order PV Rama Sastry stated to foreign media that illegal conduct on the internet was being monitored and acted upon.
Police also said that a local office of the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha had been sealed and its vice president, Ashok Sharma, had been detained.
In another part of Uttar Pradesh, at least seven men were put under arrest for setting off firecrackers, creating disturbances, and distributing sweets in celebration.
Meanwhile, thousands of paramilitary forces and police have been deployed in Ayodhya and other sensitive places to maintain law and order.