(Washington Insider Magazine) – Indian police are now looking for the people behind around 100 different social media accounts who they deem to be guilty of spreading fake news, following mosque mob attacks (Guardian).
The attacks in the north-east of India started with violence in Tripura state in October when a right-wing Hindu nationalist group rally erupted. This was thought to be a revenge attack related to the killing of multiple Hindu worshippers on the border of Bangladesh.
During the attacks, four mosques were damaged, as well as businesses and homes owned by Muslims.
The police believe that certain social media accounts attempted to incite further damage and violence by spreading fake news in the form of misleading images.
One anonymous senior police official revealed: “The accounts identified were spreading rumours, fake news, fake videos and fake photographs that were not even linked to Tripura.
“It is still too early, but everyone will be identified and arrested for such fabrications.”
102 different social media posts were identified by the police in a report released to the media on Saturday, as they believed the “unknown miscreants” were looking to incite conflict between “people of differing religious communities”.
After requests from the police on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, many of these posts had been deleted by the next day. Those that remained seemed to focus on the Muslim plight within the attacks.
