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What's up with WhatsApp - How we are underestimating the menace of group chats

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Yashee
YasheeJun 21, 2018 | 20:50

What's up with WhatsApp - How we are underestimating the menace of group chats

They are very easy to believe, and very dangerous

“Do you know the Mughals built Qutub Minar and the Jantar Mantar after razing temples? There is still a surviving pillar inside the Qutub Minar, it has Sanskrit inscriptions on it,” a former classmate, who is now an engineer, informed me at a school reunion last December.

I was surprised by the version of history, and the strength of passion. This was a person I had known since we were kids, and who had not once, through the 10 years we studied together, evinced an interest in monuments, Mughal or otherwise.

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Delhi's Qutub Minar is a Vishnu Stambha, and other things WhatsApp taught me. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Delhi's Qutub Minar is a Vishnu Stambha (it is not), and other things WhatsApp taught me. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Qutub Minar and the Jantar Mantar, I pointed out, were separated by 500 years, built under different dynasties. There was indeed a pillar with Sanskrit inscriptions, but no demolished temples.

“But there is another theory. That the Qutub Minar is actually the Vishnu Stambha, a Hindu structure,” another classmate spoke up. “Dude, not everything we learnt in history books was right.”

What I said wasn’t theory, I said, it was fact. Where was he getting his theories from? “Oh, I receive these very interesting WhatsApp forwards,” he answered. “Seriously, so much to learn,” went a murmur around the room.

Since that day, I do not delete WhatsApp forwards without reading. I am a member of seven groups, all of various hues of saffron. I read every ‘Good Morning’, ‘Jai Shri Krishna’, ‘BJP jitao, Bharat bachao’, ‘Rahul Gandhi our grt ledr’ message. It has threatened my sanity. But it has widened my horizons to breaking point. Here is what I have learnt:

  1. WhatsApp is incredibly powerful, incredibly dangerous. It is insidious and manipulative. It holds reason captive, it hypnotises you into believing and circulating absolute trash — educational qualification, financial status, the job you hold no bar.  
  2. The lies, though ridiculous, are not funny. There is a discernible pattern, a diabolical genius behind them.
  3. To legitimise their content, these messages frequently deride the traditional sources of information — “paid media will never show this”, “what Congi textbooks never told you”, etc.
  4. I wish I was alarmist and crazy. I am not. It really is that bad.

Some truth. LOTS of lies

The Qutub Minar story is a case in point. The forwards usually have some basis in truth — the iron pillar with Sanskrit verses, which any visitor to the site has seen. From there, they take wild leaps. The Vishnu Stambha theory, for example, can be read up in great detail in this article on www.hindujagruti.org, where, in a tall, tall, irony, it is “busting” fake theories about it.

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There is a mention of atrocities, injustices. Or threats. It ends with emotive reminders of what the golden Hindu past had been, and what the future can be, if Hindus but identify their “shakti” (power) and unite.

A sprinkle of truth, a dash of fantasy, a pinch of fear-mongering. A potent, intoxicating mix.

The same template must exist for other religions, other political affiliations. But I will talk about what I know.  

Within two hours of Tabassum Hasan winning the Kairana bypoll, I was flooded with forwards claiming she had termed her victory “a win of Allah over Ram”. She had not. Photo: PTI/File
Within hours of Tabassum Hasan winning the Kairana bypoll, I was flooded with forwards claiming she had termed her victory 'a win of Allah over Ram'. She had not. Photo: PTI/File

Most of my WhatsApp groups are of middle-class, upper caste, tax-payers, service class members variety. Another favourite theme is the evil of caste-based reservation, and how the Modi government, in its second term, will definitely end it.    

There are tailor-made forwards for all occasions.

When petrol prices were rising, I was carpet-bombed with messages asking why do those, who question the government for selling petrol at high prices, not commend it for selling rice/aata/daal/cheeni/tel at any random single-figure rupee/kilo. The messages had a lot of figures, so looked impressive, and were easy to believe as authentic.

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These messages come quickly, as soon as important news breaks. Within two hours of Tabassum Hasan winning the Kairana bypoll, I was flooded with forwards claiming she had termed her victory “a win of Allah over Ram”. Hasan probably received them too, she filed a police complaint.

The messages changed. Now I was being told how a Tabassum Hasan had won Kairana, a Naeemul Hasan Noorpur, a Shahnawaz Alam Jokihat. The Muslims came together to make sure their candidates won, but shame on Hindus who could not do so.

In the past month or so, there has been another change. The more celebratory variety of messages have become fewer. Now, many acknowledge the government has not given us much to thump 56-inch chests about. But there are more cautionary tales. If BJP does not come back, Hindus are doomed. It is our sacred duty to prevent that from happening. Otherwise, the whole country shall turn into the inferno we know – thanks to WhatsApp – that Bengal and Kerala are.

They really are easy to believe

Around 250 million people in India, from various social and economic backgrounds, use WhatsApp. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, you can choose your audience on the platform, at least the first set. The messages are end-to-end encrypted, so the original source is almost impossible to find. Facebook is cracking down on fake news and hate speech, but is yet to take similar measures for WhatsApp.

Pause before you press that forward button. Photo: Reuters
Pause before you press that forward button. Photo: Reuters

The written word, it would seem, is easy to trust, especially when it seems to have some basis in fact, and says what you anyway want to believe.

Fear and insecurity are easy to manipulate, and these forwards know exactly where to hit. The effects are almost instantaneous.

According to a report in The New York Times, during the recently concluded Karnataka elections, the BJP and the Congress had reportedly set up at least 50,000 WhatsApp groups to spread their messages”. The messages sure seem to have reached people – the voter turnout was 72.13 per cent, the highest since 1952.

Of course, a lot needs to done on the larger scale to contain this menace — WhatsApp must come up with safety measures, the government should crack down on fake news, political parties must rein in their IT cells.

But while the grand plans are taking shape, it is down to you and me, the small, individual consumers, to contain the menace. A simple rule: if a piece of information does not mention a source, do not trust it. If the source is given, please cross-check it.

Mark Twain famously said: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”.

Only, he did not. That’s a lie, and such a well-travelled lie, that the late-arriver truth often fails to catch up with it, and Twain is saddled with posthumous, erroneous credit.

This was before WhatsApp. Now, the lie has not just shoes, but wings. Let’s stop being the wind beneath it.   

Last updated: November 28, 2018 | 21:36
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