Over 43K “Misleading” Content Pieces Flagged By SEBI: Govt

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has so far forwarded 43,004 pieces of “misleading and manipulative” content to social media platforms for legal action.

Responding to a question, the minister of state (MoS) for finance, Pankaj Chaudhary, informed the Parliament that the content pieces were flagged for spreading “misleading/ manipulative/ unlawful” information pertaining to securities. The data pertained to the period ending January 27, 2025. 

The MoS also said that SEBI, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), home affairs ministry and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU-IND) under the finance ministry have taken multiple steps to protect investors against cybercrimes. 

Elaborating on these, Chaudhary said that stock exchanges issued an advisory for investors last year to not be “lured into fake trading platforms or fake institutional apps”. He added that stock brokers have been instructed to file a police complaint, issue public notices and inform their clients of any apps impersonating them. 

“A whitelist of authorised stockbroker trading apps has been issued by the exchanges on their respective websites for ease of investors. SEBI has also signed an enhanced multilateral MoU with International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), which enables sharing of information across borders with/from other financial sector regulators,” read the written reply. 

Besides, he also noted that the RBI has also cautioned the general public against dealing in forex with unauthorised entities. The central bank has also floated an “Alert List”, which contains the names of entities which are neither authorised to deal in forex nor allowed to operate electronic trading platforms.

In addition, Chaudhary also informed the Parliament that the MHA has set up the I4C to enable law enforcement agencies to coordinate and deal with cybercrimes. 

The government has also established the “Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management” for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to prevent fraudsters from syphoning off the funds. “An amount of INR 3,919 Cr has been saved by the system in more than 11.2 Lakh complaints,” added the MoS. 

On top of this, the Centre also launched the cyber fraud mitigation centre (CFMC) last year to help banks, other financial institutions, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries, and law enforcement agencies to collaborate on cybercrimes. 

Additionally, the government also claims to have so far identified over 9.23 Lakh mule accounts to combat cyber crimes, and blocked over 2 Lakh IMEIs and 803 mobile apps.