In India, WhatsApp stirs up deadly rumours

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FEATURE/INDIA
In India, WhatsApp stirs up deadly rumours
Since April, more than two dozen people have been beaten to death by mobs across India over suspicions of abductions.

On Friday, an IT engineer working for a multinational corporation based in Hyderabad went on a drive with three others, including a Qatari friend, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Hours later, Mohammad Azam was beaten to death by a mob of around 200 people in Bidar district, about 150km from Hyderabad - a major IT hub - after he was suspected of being a child kidnapper.

At least 32 people, including the administrator of a WhatsApp group that circulated the abduction rumours, were arrested following the attack on Friday, India's NDTV website reported.

Azam was the latest victim of abduction rumours circulating on the popular messaging platform owned by Facebook.

Since the end of April, more than two dozen people have been beaten to death by mob vigilantes across India over suspicions of child abduction, according to reports.

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India arrests 18 after two men lynched over WhatsApp rumours
Two weeks ago, five men in their 20s were also lynched by a mob at Dhule in the western state of Maharashtra, following similar rumours shared on WhatsApp, according to police.

One of the five men, all nomadic beggars, was spotted talking to a young girl at a bus stop, leading to the deadly beating. They all died before police could take them to hospital.

Activists and technology analysts have raised alarms that messaging applications like WhatsApp are being hijacked by people intent on spreading hoaxes.

Harsh Mander, an activist fighting hate crimes and mob lynchings in India, said WhatsApp only serves as a platform to spread a pre-existing tendency for violence.

"It's the culture of violence patronised by the politics of hatred that legitimises such killings, and not just a social media platform," Mander told Al Jazeera.

Easy accessibility to technology
Earlier this month in southern India's city of Mangaluru, a man out in the street with his two-year-old daughter, was beaten by a mob.


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In the northeastern state of Tripura, a man working for the government to dispel WhatsApp rumours on child kidnapping was beaten to death on June 28.

In a report published on July 6, The Indian Express said at least 27 such killings in the last one year showed a similar pattern: Outsiders who happened to be found in an area, lynchings taking place during the night, and helpless police often outnumbered by the mob.

The report said that WhatsApp, which counts India as its largest market with over 200 million users, was the most frequently used phone application to spread fake news and hoaxes.

Journalist and social media expert Nandagopal Rajan said end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp makes any kind of regulation "almost impossible".

"It can't control something it can't see," Rajan told Al Jazeera.

WhatsApp is a free app, which runs even on low-priced phones, making it easier for messages to spread among the country's millions of consumers.

For example, an edited version of a video featuring an anti-lynching campaign in Pakistan was shared widely in India.

In the Dhule lynching case, a video showing scores of Syrian children, who died in a nerve gas attack five years ago, was shared triggering the deadly attack.

WhatsApp mob
The Indian government has asked WhatsApp to take "immediate action" to prevent the misuse of the social media platform. The government said the messaging service "cannot evade accountability and responsibility" when its services are abused.


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WhatsApp, in response, said such issues are "best tackled collectively" by the government, civil society and technology companies.

"Like the government of India, we're horrified by these terrible acts of violence and wanted to respond quickly to the very important issues you have raised," WhatsApp said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Last week, WhatsApp published advertisements in India's leading newspapers to push back against the accusations.

WhatsApp also announced a $50,000 grant for ideas to help fight the spread of fake news in India.

India's Ministry of Home Affairs has directed state governments investigate the killings, and identify "vulnerable areas" where attacks could ignite.

On Tuesday, India's Supreme Court asked the government to create new laws to deal with cases of lynchings, saying "mobocracy" can't become the norm.

Zafar Islam, spokesman of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told Al Jazeera that the government is committed to stop the mob lynchings.

"The government is doing everything to ensure WhatsApp and other social media are not misused by vigilante groups or random mobs."

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anotherguy said:

From what I've seen and read it doesn't take much to get a lynch mob stirred up in India. There is a Christian ministry that helps orphans that my church supports there that is facing persecution from both local groups and the government who oppose them because of their being a Christian ministry, and also because they try to get people out of the caste system that is still there.

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Facebook updated its community standards to allow for users to call for "high-severity violence" against sexual offenders, including death threats.

In its " Do not post" section on its website, Facebook changed its standards in a July update to allow an exception to its "Violence and Incitement" standard for individuals "described as having carried out violent crimes or sexual offenses, wherein criminal/predator status has been established by media reports, market knowledge of news event, etc."

The exception allows users to make: "Threats that could lead to death" against alleged violent and sexual offenders. Facebook does not require for the threats to be against persons who have been convicted under criminal law.

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