Viral WhatsApp rumors triggered fatal mob lynchings across India

Evidence

Shortly after, an angry mob of over 200 villagers gathered, flipped over the family’s car, beat them, killing Rukmani and critically injuring the remaining family members. The following day, about 120 miles from Athimoor, ninety villagers attacked a thirty-year-old homeless man in Pulicat also on suspicion of child kidnapping. The mob gouged out one of his eyes, tied a noose around his neck, and strung his dead body from a local bridge. Similar mob lynchings started to erupt across the country; well over two dozen people died as a result of mob violence that year alone. Of course, the million-dollar question is where in the world these child-trafficking rumours originated from, and how they were able to spread so fast, far, and wide? You probably guessed it: WhatsApp. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 320

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to themes of information cascades and the social dynamics of rumor spread in the Law Merchant/trust materials — collective behavior triggered by low-quality information. — connects to: WhatsApp rumors may merely license violence people already want to commit — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 360; WhatsApp misinformation was getting people killed in India — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 318; A quarter of Indian WhatsApp users are added to groups by strangers — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 335 (+1 more)
• SEED: Could seed an essay on how messenger apps function as unmoderated rumor firehouses in low-trust environments where official channels are distrusted.

Broader Connections

• One WhatsApp user could reach 2.5 million people within seconds via group forwarding. #expands (0.80) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 334
• A quarter of Indian WhatsApp users are added to groups by strangers #complicates (0.72) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 335