India has a long history of politically motivated hoaxes and guerrilla propaganda. A popular messenger app has thrown it into overdrive.
“Viral WhatsApp Hoaxes Are India”™s Own Fake News Crisis”
by Pranav Dixit
Buzzfeed News
January 19. 2017
The United States is currently experiencing a fake news crisis “” bogus news articles disguised to look like real ones to mislead people, influence public opinion, and/or to simply use their massive reach to reap advertising profits. These operations are sophisticated, data-driven, and highly targeted. But in countries like India where internet penetration and literacy still lag far behind the US, misinformation tends to have a more grassroots quality. Twitter is a fertile ground for all kinds of rumormongering, but with just over 30 million users in the country, its impact is limited.
The primary vector for the spread of misinformation in India is WhatApp. The instant messenger is fast, free, and runs on nearly all of India”™s 300 million smartphones. It”™s also encrypted end-to-end, which means it”™s nearly impossible to track what flows through it. Its real-world ramifications, nonetheless, can be brutal.
In November, WhatsApp rumors of a salt shortage sparked panic in at least four Indian states and caused stampedes outside grocery shops as people rushed to stock up. The government eventually debunked the rumours “” but not before a woman died.
India”™s misinformation problem predates the internet. In the early “˜90s, rabble-rousers in northern India trying to stir up tensions in Hindu and Muslim communities would mass-produce cassette recordings full of fake gunfire, screams, and chants of “Allah-ho-Akbar,” and then play them in car stereos at full volume in the dead of the night to incite communal violence. Read more.