If you can't beat 'em, join 'em till you can, seems to be the new mantra being adopted by several Maharashtra Police units, including Mumbai, to curb rumour-mongering on social media that spills into real-life crimes. After the latest such incident saw a mob lynch five people, mistaken for child kidnappers, the units have been informally instructed to join as many WhatsApp groups as possible to nip such rumours in the bud and, if need be, identify culprits involved in spreading them.

Rumour mongering on various social media platforms, especially WhatsApp, has been a big headache for various units of the state police in the last few months. As per senior officials in the state police, in the last one-and-a-half month, 14 incidents of social media triggered violence have injured 18 people in Aurangabad, Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nashik, Beed, Parbhani, Nanded, Gondia and Chandrapur.