Commentary: India's 'Whatsapp election' will fuel the misinformation blame game

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The misuse of WhatsApp has been connected with at least 30 incidents of murder and lynching, Philippa Williams and Lipika Kamra point out.

Keen to extend the power of social media mobilised in the 2014 election, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to target smartphone-owning voters at the grass roots.” are creating neighbourhood-based WhatsApp groups to disseminate information about the BJP’s development achievements and prime minister Narendra Modi’s campaign activities.

A woman holds a sign with an image of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro that reads"He lies on WhatsApp," during a protest against Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 20, 2018. In some cases, when more sinister forms of misinformation have gone viral, the impact on everyday social life in India has been lethal. The misuse of WhatsApp has been connected with at least 30 incidents of murder and lynching, for example following the circulation of children abduction rumours.

These steps are a starting point but may not be enough. For one thing, despite the forwarding limits, you can still send messages to 256 people at once and forward them five times – which means you can share something with 1,280 people in seconds. Social messaging app WhatsApp has more than 1.5 billion users who exchange some 65 billion messages per day

WhatsApp is a tool that amplifies certain tendencies that already exist in Indian society. For example, incidents of lynching might have much more to do with incitement to violence in a divided society than with an app that potentially facilitates the spread of rumours.

 

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