Mangalyaan
India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, carrying the Mars orbiter, blasts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in SriharikotaReuters

Upset over fake company profiles on the social media, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) issued a warning on Monday of initiating legal action against the administrators of these profiles.

In a statement ISRO said that it has observed that a number of pages are floated on social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) in the name of ISRO, Department of Space and Mangalyaan, which have no authenticity.

There are two fake Facebook and three twitter profiles which ISRO listed in a release. These profiles sprang up when ISRO launched a company page on Mission to Mars in October this year.

These fake profiles provided update on ISRO's activities of satellite launches, images, Mars missions and its course corrections. The latest update was posted this morning, on cryogenic Geo Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) D5 being launched on 26 December.

The FB page ISRO.org has got 3.7 lakh likes, almost 80,000 more than ISRO's original Mars mission page. Additionally, the two fake ISRO accounts on Twitter have close to 5,000 followers.

"I don't say they are giving false information, but we want to put an end to these fakes," K Radhakrishnan, Chairman of ISRO told the Times of India.

The facebook pages also display ISRO's official logo, which has made the organisation see red. Stating that ISRO will not take responsibility of the content posted on these fake profiles and pages, the space research organisation said that impersonation will be construed as a serious offence and "stern legal action" will be initiated against the pages/administrators to bring them to closure.

Official Page of Mars Mission

List of forged pages