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NEW DELHI – Five people were killed by a crowd in India on Sunday after social media rumors that they were child traffickers, the latest in a series of linked lynchings fake social media messages. and struggling with ways to control growing violence.
More than a dozen people have been killed across India since the month of May in violence fueled primarily by messages on the WhatsApp service. The cases mainly concern villagers, some of whom may be using smartphones for the first time. Inflamed by fake traffic warnings from children or organs, they attacked innocent bystanders and beat them to death.
Governments around the world are considering laws and controls against false news and the rise of hate speech. Such reactions have raised issues of freedom of expression. But the spread of fake news, a global scourge, has been particularly pernicious in India, where many new inexperienced smartphone users are sending billions of messages a day on WhatsApp, which has more than 200 million users in India, its biggest market. 19659004] While the Indian government questions what should be done, local authorities are obliged to protect themselves from bad news, issue warnings and employ methods unsophisticated such as hiring street artists and rumors. "We are trying to counter the misinformation with an aggressive campaign on social media, WhatsApp and local TV channels," said Ramkumar, the campaign manager. Superintendent of Police in Dhule, a district of western India. It is here that five nomadic beggars were beaten to death Sunday by villagers, who thought they were kidnappers.
Satish Bhaykre, 21, who was beaten by a mob because of a fake WhatsApp text, poses in his home on the outskirts of Nagpur, India, June 23, 2018. (Stringer / Reuters) [19659005] "We want to convey the message that all rumors are false and that they should not fall prey to them," said Ramkumar
[ WhatsApp founder plans to leave after wide conflicts with parent Facebook]
In recent days, WhatsApp's – Facebook-owned and based in Menlo Park, Calif. – have introduced a new feature that allows group administrators to control which members can post messages, and the company is testing a plan to label the messages that are prominent. WhatsApp expands its reach in India as its 2019 general election looms and political parties sign thousands of "WhatsApp warriors" – who, in some cases, broadcast inflammatory content themselves
"WhatsApp s & # Efforts to have received transmitted information and provide controls to group administrators to reduce the spread of unwanted messages in private conversations, "said a spokesman for WhatsApp, Carl Woog." We have also seen people use WhatsApp to combat misinformation, including police in India, press organizations and fact checkers. We are working with a number of organizations to intensify our educational efforts so that people know where to find fake news and hoaxes circulating online. "
Unlike Facebook – where users can be tracked and stopped to post content that violates their standards – WhatsApp content is harder to monitor because messages are encrypted between users, yet critics say it can and should do more in a country where hundreds of thousands of people are logging in for the first time.
"The police will always run out of money because the use of WhatsApp is growing while they are difficult to manage and do not have the necessary manpower, "said technology expert Nikhil Pahwa. "The platform itself must evolve."
Pahwa argues that messages transferred from WhatsApp should be labeled with the original number, to facilitate the repression of abuse and discourage users from creating malicious content. last month, it expands an existing program for journalists in India to train 8,000 reporters in seven languages to spot and expose the false information generated in the country's "specific disinformation ecosystem", according to Irene Jay Liu, head of Google News Lab Asia Pacific, Google's biggest effort.
The Indian government's attempts to combat the problem have been strained. In April, a circular from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting proposing harsh sentences for journalists posting false news was withdrawn in less than 24 hours after a public outcry.
In Tripura, three people were killed last week. On June 26, an 11-year-old boy was accused by Ratan Lal Nath, a ruling party leader, Bharatiya Janata, of being introduced to the boy's house to falsely claim that the kidney of the boy's father had been killed. child had been cut off from his body by organ traffickers, a video shows. The police later dispelled this fiction but the damage had been done.
The state's information and culture department hired "rumored drinkers" to control the subsequent violence, including 33-year-old Sukanta Chakraborty. a sound voice that was paid about $ 8 a day to travel from village to village in a van equipped with a speaker, warning against the dangers of false news. He and two others were assaulted by a crowd wielding bricks and bamboo sticks in a crowded market on Thursday.
"They killed him, he pleaded with the crowd that he was only doing his duty, no one listened to him," said Tanushri Barua, Chakraborty's wife, at the luncheon. a telephone interview. "What was his fault? Now, there is nothing left. "
Farheen Fatima contributed to this report
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