WhatsApp Vigilantes: An exploration of citizen reception and circulation of WhatsApp misinformation linked to mob violence in India
by Shakuntala Banaji and Ram Bhat
with Anushi Agarwal, Nihal Passanha and Mukti Sadhana Pravin
17th October 2019, 18.00 – 19.30
This discussion, chaired by Dr. Omar Al-Ghazzi, invites responses to new research conducted on WhatsApp forwarding of misinformation and mob violence in India. The abuse of applications such as WhatsApp to spread fake news, misinformation and disinformation has had dangerous consequences for hundreds of vulnerable groups, and nowhere more so than in India. Hundreds of people in the last five years have been publicly lynched to death, leading to the phrase ‘WhatsApp Lynchings’. Since October 2018, Dr. Shakuntala Banaji and Ram Bhat have been working with field researchers in India conducting qualitative research in four large states, interacting with more than 275 people in focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and reviewing more than 1000 messages on WhatsApp to produce typologies both of Indian disinformation/misinformation and of the users most likely and least likely to forward these messages. The discussion will include a presentation of the findings, comments from our expert audience and responses.
Date
10/19/19
Time
6:00 PM -
7:30 PM
Where
Thai Theatre, New Academic Building (NAB), LSE, London WC2A 2AE UK Map
