There is an uncomfortable fact: many people only notice harm when there’s a victim similar to them involved, but are typically oblivious or unconcerned with the troubles not in their purview: impetus for mass-migration to Europe, genocides (ie Hutus & Tutsis), East Timor, PNG, nationless people (ie Rohingya, Kurds, Uyghurs, Palestinians, Catalans), terrorism in Africa and neglect/poisoning of poor people in rural areas.
India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
21–30 of 70 posts
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#22This reminds me of the “Foxconn suicides” story... sure the absolute numbers were high, but Foxconn has like a million employees, so the suicide rate was actually completely “normal”. > 25 people have been killed since May So 150 people per year, or 0.000015% of India’s population. Sure, it’s a problem, but I’m pretty sure there are bigger problems that are easier to solve (rape and acid attacks come to mind).
I couldn't find more historic data points, but extrapolating from 25 since May to 150 per year is a bad approach. There's a difference between: it's been always happening, and this is the most recent summary -vs- April 0, May 1, June 4, July 20.
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#23Surely the real problem here is that there are a great many people who are both gullible and prone to violence.
Missing the rule of law is often a good driver for vigilantism.
If people feel criminals aren't prosecuted, they are more likely to take matters into their own hands.
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#24This pretty much highlights how important education is and the effort that needs to go toward educating the poor in India. The coming wave of technology and tools is only going to exacerbate these problems further. One small thing that whatsapp could potentially do is to make it a little bit harder to forward messages to everyone. force people to wait a couple of seconds before adding another person.
On second thought - let's get rid of this forwarding feature altogether.
Personally, I've only ever received jokes an memes that were forwarded...
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#25It's great WhatsApp took steps to prevent the spread of false information but that isn't the root of the problem. The root of the problem is of a cultural nature. At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings. For that reason, the perpetrators are often not prosecuted by the police. A law that makes clear mob killings are unacceptable would go a long way in changing the cultural stance towards such acts.…
>At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings Surely you're joking?
You’re talking about India: where slavery is alive and well, college girls are locked in at night and rape/domestic violence goes virtually unpunished, with police as “quality” as those in Afghanistan. VICE did a piece on this. Also, sectarian violence there is normal.
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#26It's great WhatsApp took steps to prevent the spread of false information but that isn't the root of the problem. The root of the problem is of a cultural nature. At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings. For that reason, the perpetrators are often not prosecuted by the police. A law that makes clear mob killings are unacceptable would go a long way in changing the cultural stance towards such acts.…
>At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings Surely you're joking?
Legal ground for the prosecution of individuals who participated in mob lynchings exists but is rather weak at the moment. The source for the above statements is https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/its-time-to-enact-an-a...
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#27This reminds me of the “Foxconn suicides” story... sure the absolute numbers were high, but Foxconn has like a million employees, so the suicide rate was actually completely “normal”. > 25 people have been killed since May So 150 people per year, or 0.000015% of India’s population. Sure, it’s a problem, but I’m pretty sure there are bigger problems that are easier to solve (rape and acid attacks come to mind).
I couldn't find more historic data points, but extrapolating from 25 since May to 150 per year is a bad approach. There's a difference between: it's been always happening, and this is the most recent summary -vs- April 0, May 1, June 4, July 20.
What would be a better approach, inabsence of other data points?
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#28Why can't these sites implement a 'are you sure?' check before letting users repost fake news? Do a lookup on Snopes or similar and provide that along with information that informs the user of legal consequences of participating in the sharing of false information if harm results from it.
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#29The solutions provided seem quite poor. What whatsapp needs is a reporting button for hoaxes and disturbing content…
And do what, exactly? What do you do once a user reports me as relaying fake news? Ban me? I strongly disagree. I am responsible for my actions. If I kill someone, I can’t say “well, I thought this man ate beef”. This is a law and order problem and not something we can fix from outside India.
>This is a law and order problem and not something we can fix from outside India.
These lynchings are not solely a law and order problems. Indian law enforcement definitely has issues with maintaining peace and harmony but WhatsApp has considerably added to the problem. A lot of these lynchings have taken place within minutes. Before WhatsApp, it usually took a good amount of time to collect a group and target someone but these mobs assemble with 10-15 minutes, do the deed and disperse mere minutes before the police arrives.
India needs legal and administrative reforms to deal with these issues but WhatsApp can definitely put the brakes on such small mobs by merely rate limiting the group texts. At the very least, it will give the police some more time to respond.
Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors
#30It's great WhatsApp took steps to prevent the spread of false information but that isn't the root of the problem. The root of the problem is of a cultural nature. At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings. For that reason, the perpetrators are often not prosecuted by the police. A law that makes clear mob killings are unacceptable would go a long way in changing the cultural stance towards such acts.…
Add to that the fact that the higher echelons of the current government turns a blind eye to lynching and hate crime, whereas at the grassroots they encourage such lynchings. Lynching to death over diet preferences (beef) is a very recent phenomena emboldened by the implicit promise by the government that there will be no consequences.
Recently the chief minister of the state of Tripura reacted to a reporter's questions on lynching by stating that there is a "wave of happiness" going on an that this is the government of the people and "people will act" and one should just embrace it. Of course later there was the usual run of the mill back tracking that he was misquoted and that he was quoted out of context -- the usual PR drill.
Its only after some repeated instances that go on for months there will be a token "we are against this" soundbyte, but just that -- a soundbyte wink wink.