India has evidence of social media platforms using crowdfunding measures to fund terror activities, Dinkar Gupta, Director-General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Thursday.
The misuse of social media platforms was an issue that needed to be discussed at the third “No Money for Terror Conference” (NMFT) which India would be hosting from November 18-19, he said.
The third ‘No Money for Terror Ministerial Conference on Counter-Terrorism Financing’ hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others.
Addressing a press conference ahead of the meeting beginning Friday, Gupta also said Pakistan and Afghanistan were not participating in the conference, while China was yet to confirm.
Gupta said terror activities have declined in India during the last eight years, and there is a “huge reduction” in terror activities in all “theatres of conflicts”, be it Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, the northeast or the areas affected by Left Wing Extremism.
To a question on the inclusion of social media platform regulation in the agenda of the terror financing conference, Gupta said social media platforms are being used to raise financing, funding or as crowdfunding platforms.
“We do have evidence of this kind of thing happening. This is an issue that needs to be discussed because such platforms are being used for raising finances which are being used in terror activities,” he said.