Two people innocent by the crowd who believed in Facebook and WhatsApp's fake news burned lynching

In the city of Aktoran in Puebla, Mexico, in August 2018 two men were murdered by those who believed in the fake news that "the mother kidnapped children and sold their organs". Two men caught Lynch by the crowd and eventually lit a fire, but it was said that it was completely innocent.

Burned to death because of a rumor on WhatsApp - BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46145986

BBC, a British news media, is talking to witnesses of the incident in the case of the incident. Maura Cordero, the owner of the craft shop, noticed that a crowd was on the police station next to his store on that day. Mr. Cordero saw that a police car brought two men to the police station and put them in a small jail. There were several people behind the police car, and he said that he was shouting that he was a "kidnapper" against two men in the detention center. In response, the police repeatedly explained that they were misdemeanors, not kidnappers.

I was in a jail, a 21-year-old man named Ricardo Flores and his uncle, 43-year-old Alberto Flore. Ricardo is a person who grew up outside the town of Akatran and moved to live in the city called Xalapa, about 250 km from the city to learn the law. Alberto was a farmer and for many years lived in a small community outside Alberto. According to relatives who had been in contact with the two people, they said that they were visiting Red Town to buy materials for making wells. The police explained that there was no evidence that the two committed any crime, and that which was put in the detention center explains "It is being said that local residents were invited to disturb the calm".

However, the crowd who accused the two as kidnappers outside the detention center, believed in another story. On this day, the following message was spread through WhatsApp.

"Please be careful, kidnappers have entered this country.The criminals are involved in organ trafficking.In the past few days, children of 4 years old, 8 years old, 14 years old appeared A few kids were found in corpses with evidence of their removal, kidnappers broke through the children and emptied the body. "

Because Ricardo and Alberto were witnessed near an elementary school in the community called San Vicente Boqueron, the two were misunderstood as kidnappers by the inhabitants. And the residents controlled by fear spread the news that "kidnappers were arrested" in a blink of an eye.

Despite repeatedly telling the police that they are not kidnappers, people gather at the police station steadily and change their shape to a crowd with a single purpose. And the detention house was destroyed by people, the two men were dragged and received violent violence. Later, two people were gasolineed and put on fire, but it is believed that Ricardo had already died at this point. Meanwhile, Mr. Alberto knows that the hands and legs are being shot while being enveloped in flames, and it was burned alive.

Maria, Mr. Ricardo 's mother and Alberto' s sister, knew that his son and brother were arrested through Facebook and suspected to be a kidnapper on this day. After seeing how the two were being beaten by the crowd, I made a comment saying "Do not hurt them, they are not kidnappers", but assault did not stop. The body was left in place for two hours after the two people were burned, and when Ricardo's grandmother Petra Elia Garcia arrived, "Alberto's cheeks still had tears". "Look at what you did!" Garcia shouted, but at that time the crowd seemed scattered.

A picture of Ricardo and his mother Maria when I was young.

Also, Jazmin Sanchez, Alberto's wife, also saw the incident through Facebook this day. My husband and I live in a place called Xayacatlan de Bravo, 14 km from Acatollan. After the incident, we are living with four people, Sanchez and three young girls at Xayacatlan de Bravo's small house. "He was a nice person, not a human being who dies like this," Sanchez says.

According to the authorities, an arrest warrant was issued to five who incited crime in this case and four who committed murder. A person named Francisco Martinez, who is a resident of Katlan, was arrested for using Facebook and Whatsapp to demonstrate the scene of the scene and to spread the fake news with a message "believe me, kidnappers are here" 1 person. Also a man named Manuel was arrested for ringing a warning bell when the police are about to release the two. In addition, a man named Petronilo Castelan who gathered money to buy gasoline has been arrested, but other executing offenses have already disappeared and are not caught.

There is no such thing as Mexico. Violence incidents have occurred in India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka by Facebook and WhatsApp fake news. India in Assam, also in June 2018, and Lynch murder by people who believe in the hoax of child abduction has occurred have been reported .

Maria mentioned two people 's death, "Why did not anyone check? No one was kidnapped and no formal complaint was filed, even though it was fake news "I said. In this regard, Manuel Alejandro Guerrero, a political scientist at the University of Iberoamericana, says, "Digital platform promptly spreads the best and worst of human beings on the fly and prejudice, Especially when there is no power or authority to guarantee the safety of people, it will appear clearly. "

Because WhatsApp is doing thorough end-to-end encryption, you can not track the source of fake news. But in response to a series of incidents, the company is trying to prevent the spread of violence by restricting the ability to transfer messages to more than 250 chat at a time to five in India. "We think technology companies, civil society, and government actions are necessary to stop the violence of the crowd." "We will step up user education on misinformation and discuss how What's App in the community We will provide the law enforcement agency with training on whether to use it, "the company says.

Also, Facebook PR also said, "I do not want our service to be used to create violence.This year we will identify and delete movies with violence by the crowd that happened in Puebla province. We then revised the policy in the form of removing content that causes real world violence.With collaborating with technology companies and society and the government to fight the spread of content that could cause violence I am going to go "and I have announced a comment to BBC.