
People getting killed by fake news on Watsapp - taherchhabra
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/as-mob-lynchings-fueled-by-whatsapp-sweep-india-authorities-struggle-to-combat-fake-news/2018/07/02/683a1578-7bba-11e8-ac4e-421ef7165923_story.html
======
nv-vn
The logical solution is to focus on how to stop lynchings, not how to stop
"fake news". At the end of the day, these are still murders and treating them
as anything else, especially for the purpose of smuggling censorship into law,
is disgusting.

~~~
ramblerman
Agreed, from the end of the article, even the person sent in to warn of fake
news was beaten to death. Don't forget these are the same areas where honor
killings happen all too frequently.

It's a deeply rooted societal problem and it all seems a bit easy to hide
under the skirts of 'fake news' and blame whatsapp for these instances.

~~~
taherchhabra
it's a societal problem but the big social media platforms amplify that social
behaviour. I am sure we still dont know the effects of social media on
society, so simply thinking of it as a societal problem is also a bit easy.
Its more of a societal+technology problem

------
cazum
This seems strikingly similar to another Indian story from a few years ago in
which a man was lynched by a mob after a rumor falsely alleged that he had
eaten beef. ([https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/indian-mob-kills-
man-...](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/indian-mob-kills-man-cow-
slaughter-rumour-150930193719666.html))

That time Whatsapp was not involved at all, yet the rumor spread just the
same. This seems to be a case of treating the symptom, and not the problem.
For example:

>Sukanta Chakraborty, 33, a tabla musician with a sonorous voice who was paid
about $8 a day to travel from village to village in a van equipped with a
loudspeaker, warning about the dangers of fake news. He and two others were
beset by a mob wielding bricks and bamboo sticks in a crowded market Thursday.

In this case, the mob attacked him for trying to get the mobs to question
their accepted beliefs (that child traffickers are rampant, and can be
identified through Whatsapp), which is a pattern of behavior found in
similarly situated groups through history, for example, the witch trials. Much
like the witch trials, there are likely causal explanations for these
villager's behaviors. For example, the witch trials are suspected to be a
reaction to the citizen's fears of brutal native attacks that were happening
around that time.

Perhaps the Indian gov't should look to identify and fix the situation making
these people fearful and violent, not just plug up the tubes with legislation
that will cause them to revert back to old-fashioned rumor spreading.

~~~
jt2190
> For example, the witch trials are suspected to be a reaction to the
> citizen's fears of brutal native attacks that were happening around that
> time.

The vast majority of witch trials were in Europe, and not New England.

edit: Change "Britain" to "Europe"; citation:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_mode...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_modern_period#Decline_of_the_trials:_1650%E2%80%931750)

------
kylehotchkiss
Mandatory informational session before sims can be sold? The owner of the
phone, not the person who buys the sim, must demonstrate knowledge that rumors
spread via whatsapp?

And only let people who agree to enforce this sell sims?

~~~
gnode
Or police mob violence and prosecute murderers regardless of being inspired by
rumours?

~~~
mark_edward
This won't happen, the ruling coalition and PM have a long history of Hindu
nationalist mob violence. Before modi became PM he was banned from the US for
addicted that happened while he was governor of an Indian province with tacit
approval. The RSS, the paramilitary wing if the BJP, openly takes inspiration
from Nazis and Hitler's violent nationalism.

~~~
talonx
Please cite sources for the Hitler reference.

~~~
mark_edward
"Germany is the other Nation most in the eye of the world. Germany tried to
unify its nation via taking over Austria. Germany’s religion is not what it
should be. “German race pride has now become a topic of the day.

To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world
by her purging the country of the Semitic Races – the Jews. Race pride at its
highest has been manifest here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh
impossible it is for Races and cultures having differences going to the root,
to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to
learn and profit by.” - Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar _We, or Our Nationhood
Defined_

[https://sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/Misc/We-or-Our-Nationhood-
De...](https://sanjeev.sabhlokcity.com/Misc/We-or-Our-Nationhood-Defined-Shri-
M-S-Golwalkar.pdf)

M. S. Golwalkar was the second supreme leader of the RSS

