DOUBLE WHAMMY

This was the message in a Whatsapp Group I'm part of.

From tomorrow onwards there are new communication regulations.

All calls are recorded

All phone call recordings saved

WhatsApp is monitored

Twitter is monitored

Facebook is monitored

All social media and forums are monitored

Inform those who do not know.

Your devices are connected to ministry systems.

Take care not to send unnecessary messages

Inform your children, Relatives and friends about this to take care

*_Don't forward any posts or videos etc., you receive  regarding politics/present situation about Government/PM etc._*

Police have put out a notification termed ..Cyber Crime ... and action will be taken...just delete ...

Inform your friends & others too.

Writing or forwarding any msg on any political & religious debate is an offence now....arrest without warrant...

This is very serious, plz let it be known to all our groups and individual members as group admin can b in deep trouble.

Take care not to send unnecessary messages.

Inform everyone about this to take care. 

Please share it; it's very much true.                 Group admins please be careful.

Ominous? Maybe.

Dire? Sure. 

It resembles this post about internet censorship in China that was doing the rounds a while ago (Thanks Shravan for sending us this!). 

 

If it wasn't for reports about China's extreme censorship guidelines, I would reckon that this was a hoax or a sarcastic post. This is one of those instances where breaking news and faking news begin to sound alike. But the last line is a dead giveaway - it lampoons the greeting messages as images that we receive and send! And there's no newspaper called Shanghai News the last time I checked.

The fact remains that the earlier whatsapp forward I got - in the absence of an Indian authority or even a self-proclaimed lobby that's issuing these diktats - I'm willing to bet that it's either a hoax message, a variation of the China message or one where the sarcasm is lost.

But if it does cut down some of the vitriol we spew on politics, religion and morals on social media, I'm tempted to let this one go.