Can Emojis Land You In Jail?

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A simple keyword search can lead you to scan multiple search results. However, you can customise these search results by applying filters. For instance, Google offers Google Advanced Search for text, images, and video. Similarly, you can narrow down your search results on both Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).

For Facebook:

Name of the tool: Who posted what

All you have to do is:

• Step 1: Go to the website.

• Step 2: Add all the filters that you want to. For example, enter the date range, location, keywords, posts from a particular account, among others.

• Step 3: And voila! You will have the required results.

For X:

Name of the tool: X Advanced Search

• Step 1: Go to the website.

• Step 2: Add all the filters that you want to. For example, enter the date range, account handle, keywords, among others.

• Step 3: You will see the required posts.

P.S. Both are free tools.

DECODE

An Assam Man LOLd on Facebook. Two Years Later, He Faced the Law

Can emojis land you in jail?: Two years after he reacted with a laughing emoji on a Facebook comment, Amit Chakraborty was surrounded by reporters with cameras and microphones. His family was confused and terrified. He had not told his family he had been battling a legal case for that seemingly casual emoji. 

The details: In February 2023, a Facebook post by Kokrajhar Deputy Commissioner Varnali Deka incited plenty of comments. A Facebook user, Naresh Barua, commented, “No makeup today, ma’am?” Chakraborty, a business owner in Assam, was one of several users who reacted to the comment. 

While emojis have taken different forms of meaning in different cultures and contexts across the globe, it has also led to defamation lawsuits and criminal charges in India. The tiny digital symbols have taken on unexpected weight in Indian courts. But how far can a simple reaction go before it turns into a legal nightmare?

Read Hera Rizwan’s report.

DIY Fraud: How Fake Aadhaar And PAN Are Sold Like Fast Food

Hunt for a birth certificate: When Durgesh Nishad’s uncle needed a birth certificate for his son's passport application, he turned to India’s Centralised Civil Registration System (CRS)—the official portal for birth and death records. But what should have been a routine process quickly turned into a close call with a scam. 

First red flag: At first, everything seemed fine—until Durgesh reached the payment page. Instead of a standard fee, the site asked him to load money into a digital wallet in fixed amounts of Rs 100. “I checked online, and the actual cost of a birth certificate was just Rs 20. That’s when I started getting suspicious,” he told Decode’s Hera Rizwan. 

Fake website and identity theft: His doubts were confirmed when the Paytm gateway displayed a random name—Ravi. A domain check revealed the worst: the website was fake. “On digging deeper, I found out that anyone could create an account on such portals and generate fraudulent birth certificates. These sites look exactly like the real ones and steal personal details like Aadhaar numbers,” said Durgesh. 

He was lucky to spot the red flags in time, but as a recent investigation by CloudSEK reveals, this elaborate scam has been ongoing since at least 2021, with thousands of operators involved—primarily mobile shops and cybercafes acting as intermediaries.

EXPLAINED

'Drug Addicts','Maoists', ‘ISI’: How Jadavpur University Protests Are Vilified

Targeted smear campaign: Jadavpur University students face repeated vilification, with right-wing groups and media branding them as ‘Maoists,’ ‘ISI agents,’ and ‘drug addicts’ every time protests erupt. 

Right-wing & media playbook: BJP, ABVP, and pro-TMC media amplified claims of Jadavpur being an ‘anti-national hub,’ linking protests to urban Naxalism and calling for a crackdown. 

Cycle of misinformation: Sensationalist coverage of the media regularly paints the university as a lawless zone, ignoring the students’ real concerns over democracy and governance.

Read Snigdhendu Bhattacharya’s report as he decodes the recipe of vilifying Jadavpur University protests.

'FAKE NEWS’ YOU ALMOST FELL FOR

🔍 A video of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut's statement on Aurangzeb's tomb and the demand to demolish it, went viral with a misleading claim that he praised him and termed the tomb a symbol of his valour. Read 🔗 Anmol Alphonso’s ↗️ fact-check.

🔍 Viral posts falsely claimed a 2024 United Nations (UN) report named India as being responsible for 72.3% of terrorist activities in Asia. 🔗 Nidhi Jacob ↗️ debunked the claim.

🔍 A video showing multiple shots of Prime Minister Narendra Modi offering Namaz in Islamic attire—generated using artificial intelligence (AI)—was shared on social media, with many posts insinuating it to be real. Read 🔗 Archis Chowdhury’s ↗️ fact-check.

🅱️ RECOMMENDS

This week's recommendation is: An AI chatbot helped Americans who believe in conspiracy theories “exit the rabbit hole”

Verified By Boom is written by Divya Chandra, edited by Adrija Bose and designed by H Shiva Roy Chowdhury.

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