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The issue dominated the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday, where director general of police and senior police officials gave a detailed presentation on social media-related offences, legal challenges in prosecution, and the handling of such cases in courts.

Following the presentation, the Cabinet directed the police not to ignore objectionable social media content and instructed them to invoke all available legal provisions against offenders while respecting the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.

The Chief Minister ordered the establishment of a state-level Social Media Response Cell as well as a Task Force to monitor, investigate, and act against cases involving alleged online abuse, hate campaigns, misinformation, and character assassination. Police officers have been directed to immediately constitute the task force, with the option of inducting outside experts, if required.

Naidu also instructed officials to allocate funds for identifying anonymous social media handles involved in abusive and defamatory campaigns and ordered specialised training for station house officers (SHOs) to strengthen investigation of cyber-related offences.

To help strengthen the government's cases in courts, the Chief Minister directed the police department to identify and recommend public prosecutors with expertise in cyber investigations, saying legal strategy in tackling social media cases should be significantly strengthened.

A key decision of the Cabinet was to examine whether Andhra Pradesh requires a special law to deal with serious social media offences.

Naidu directed officials to study the legal frameworks adopted by other states and countries, assess existing best practices, and submit recommendations on whether an exclusive piece of legislation is required to curb organised online abuse and misinformation.

The Cabinet also decided that the issue would be examined by the Cabinet Sub-Committee before a final policy decision is taken.

During the meeting, Naidu accused the YSR Congress Party of using social media campaigns to divert public attention from the government's developmental and welfare programmes. He alleged that the Opposition was deliberately provoking ruling party MLAs through online campaigns and advised Ministers and legislators not to react emotionally or fall into what he described as a political trap.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Information and Public Relations Minister K Parthasarathy said social media was increasingly being used not only to attack political opponents but also to spread falsehoods, damage reputations, and mislead the public. He alleged that certain individuals were receiving support from political parties to carry out such campaigns and said the government would utilise every legal provision available to take strict action against those responsible.

The Minister said the proposal for a separate law to deal with serious social media misuse would also be studied as part of the government's broader effort to strengthen legal and institutional safeguards against online abuse.