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India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

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Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#41

Post by paganel »

A very similar thing happened in Bucharest a couple of weeks ago: a bunch of people from a “poor” neighborhood attacked an ambulance-looking vehicle which was being used by a 50-year old lady writer to promote books and reading among the kids living in those poor neighborhoods. The mass hysteria reguarding said lady was also spread through social media (FB and WhatsApp) and what’s even more disconcerting is that even after the police cleared everything up and explained the situation (thankfully the lady escaped with only some bruises) there were still people commenting on said lady writer’s FB page accusing her of being a child-kidnapper.

I’m afraid democracy and the idea of universal vote will start to be influenced more and more by these people, no matter how much some other people will try to “regulate” some communication channels.

Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#42

Post by srean »

inapis wrote: post #29
mcny wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 someon…

No, we should actually thank WhatsApp for exposing an old problem that all have preferred to ignore or deny.

WhatsApp isn't the problem, we Indians are and that needs fixing, not WhatsApp.

Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#43

Post by pgeorgi »

throwaway_009 wrote: post #40

Just wanted to present an observation that Deutsche Welle (DW) has an extremely biased opinion of India and presents only the bad and sensationalized articles about things in India. As an Indian living in Germany, I have seen firsthand how misrepresented India is in foreign publications. Although, I don't doubt the article, I would suggest you take the article with a pinch of salt. Yes, there are problems in some par…

"Like yesterday nothing extraordinary happened in 99% of India today" isn't newsworthy though.

But maybe DW should emphasize the local aspect of these reports, like the foreign office does: https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/aussenpolitik/laender/ind... Germans aren't used to a single country being that vast and diverse.

Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#44

Post by sumedh »

srean wrote: post #37
sumedh wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For that reason, the perpetrators are often not prosecuted by the police. You also have to talk about the other side, in most of the cases the Police dont take any action if a local thug has the support of some big politician or bribes the police. Lynching is the only solution people are left with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akku_Yadav

To a certain extent you are right. If the only way to get at some semblance of justice is by street violence, that is what you will get. This is essentially the failure of governance, a government that is selectively absent because it suits them that way. That said, the Indian populace needs to grow up and not behave like insolent children throwing a tantrum. It should not be the job of the media companies to control…

> the Indian populace needs to grow up and not behave like insolent children throwing a tantrum.

Well that is the second order bit, the first order bit is that Indian populace needs have faith in its Police and Govt but as you said that is not going to happen.

Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#45

Post by jonhendry18 »

tomp wrote: post #5

This 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).

A farmer in India commits suicide about every 30 minutes.

But that's still a tiny fraction of India's population.

India's population is so big any problem short of a rampaging plague epidemic can be dismissed with that logic.

Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#46

Post by srean »

sumedh wrote: post #44
srean wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To a certain extent you are right. If the only way to get at some semblance of justice is by street violence, that is what you will get. This is essentially the failure of governance, a government that is selectively absent because it suits them that way. That said, the Indian populace needs to grow up and not behave like insolent children throwing a tantrum. It should not be the job of the media companies to control…

> the Indian populace needs to grow up and not behave like insolent children throwing a tantrum. Well that is the second order bit, the first order bit is that Indian populace needs have faith in its Police and Govt but as you said that is not going to happen.

Agreed. Don't want to agree, but reality is not giving me many options. The way to fix this is to make quick public examples of the bad actors.

Truth be told, in the Akku Yadav case, I don't know how I would have reacted if I was there.

Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#47

Post by sumedh »

srean wrote: post #46
sumedh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the Indian populace needs to grow up and not behave like insolent children throwing a tantrum. Well that is the second order bit, the first order bit is that Indian populace needs have faith in its Police and Govt but as you said that is not going to happen.

Agreed. Don't want to agree, but reality is not giving me many options. The way to fix this is to make quick public examples of the bad actors. Truth be told, in the Akku Yadav case, I don't know how I would have reacted if I was there.

> The way to fix this is to make quick public examples of the bad actors.

Totally agree, I really thought Modi might do something but I was wrong.

Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#48

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway_009 wrote: post #40

Just wanted to present an observation that Deutsche Welle (DW) has an extremely biased opinion of India and presents only the bad and sensationalized articles about things in India. As an Indian living in Germany, I have seen firsthand how misrepresented India is in foreign publications. Although, I don't doubt the article, I would suggest you take the article with a pinch of salt. Yes, there are problems in some par…

[deleted]

Re: India: Google engineer latest victim of mob lynchings fueled by WhatsApp rumors

#49

Post by sifar »

I have been thinking about this a bit. [0] covers it in more detail at the local level with a map of the places it has happened. This is something which has been happening in India and is not limited to a particular state. There was a recent article about how the cops discovered one of the videos responsible for lynching to be fake and taken out of context of a NGOs promotional video.

Makes me wonder the motives of persons involved - what do they gain by inciting this violence. These are not your vote banks. But considering its pan-India nature, this activity is somehow organized.

This is not a law and order problem. In the sense that it is beyond that. Those who say it do not understand the scale of mobs in India. You cannot police this, especially in places where this is occurring. The police have been helpless, even threatened.

The real problem is indeed the people of India. WhatsApp is just a medium - though it makes it very convenient. I would even say this outcome of whatsApp usage is inevitable in a country like India where you will find abundant people ready to go berserk and people who want to exploit it for no apparent reason.

Frequent reading about this really makes me loose faith in humanity. I don't know how to change a billion people.

[0] https://indianexpress.com/article/india/murderous-mob-lynchi...

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