---
abstract: |
  Viral messages on messaging services can cause real harm, and has even
  resulted in dozens of lynchings in India. But the way to address such
  harms isn't by penalizing the service provider or removing encryption,
  but through education, improved moderation design, and police
  interactions with communities.
author:
- Pranesh Prakash
authors:
- Pranesh Prakash
categories:
- Freedom of expression
citation:
  abstract: Viral messages on messaging services can cause real harm,
    and has even resulted in dozens of lynchings in India. But the way
    to address such harms isn't by penalizing the service provider or
    removing encryption, but through education, improved moderation
    design, and police interactions with communities.
  author: Pranesh Prakash
  available-date:
    date-parts:
    - - 2018
      - 5
      - 28
    iso-8601: 2018-05-28
    literal: 2018-05-28
    raw: 2018-05-28
  citation-key: prakashDonForward2018
  container-title: Times of India
  edition: Bengaluru
  issued:
    date-parts:
    - - 2018
      - 5
      - 28
    iso-8601: 2018-05-28
    literal: 2018-05-28
    raw: 2018-05-28
  section: Times City
  title: Don't forward "as received"
  type: article-newspaper
comments:
  hypothesis:
    theme: clean
date: 2018-05-28
engines:
- path: /opt/quarto/share/extension-subtrees/julia-engine/\_extensions/julia-engine/julia-engine.js
keywords:
- speech harms
- free speech
- WhatsApp
- end-to-end encryption
license:
  text: CC BY-NC 4.0
  type: creative-commons
  url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"
listing-page: ../press.html
publication: Times of India
title: Don't forward 'as received'
title-block-categories: true
toc-title: Table of contents
---

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Lynch-mobs debase humanity. The reasons for their actions in the past
have been varied: Suspicion of cow smuggling, thieving, and child
trafficking. However a common thread in many cases has been the
circulation of rumours that appeal to people's fears and bigotry on
messaging platforms, especially WhatsApp.

While rumours leading to lynchings and even riots are not new to India,
their frequency is alarming. Digital technologies afford us greater
ability to communicate and to exercise our freedom of expression more
fully than ever before. They also allow the spread of rumours in greater
numbers, over greater distances and with greater impunity. While child
abduction rumours on WhatsApp resulted in a lynching in 2015 too, the
past month has seen such rumours spread all over South India, resulting
in dozens of lynchings. The difference? Increased use of the Internet.

How can this menace be tackled? First, we have to accept personal
responsibility. Never forward 'as received' messages whose veracity you
aren't sure of; chastise those who do. This is also backed by the law:
the IPC, under provisions like Sections 505 and 153A, allows for
prosecution of certain categories of harmful rumours and falsehoods.

Second, WhatsApp's moderation-less design encourages rumour-mongering.
WhatApp implicitly discourages moderation of content in groups (e.g., it
only has 'administrators', not 'moderators'), unlike, say, Facebook.

Research carried out by J. Nathan Mathias of MIT shows that reminding
users of posting rules "actually prevent(s) people, especially
newcomers, from commenting outside those rules". However, while
WhatsApp's terms of service do prohibit "publishing falsehoods,
misrepresentations, or misleading statements", users and admins are
never told this except when they sign up. Even then, WhatsApp doesn't
provide translated versions of "acceptable use" terms in languages like
Hindi and Tamil. This must change: People need constant reminding of
what's acceptable and what isn't by group admins.

Third, while the police in some places have often been doing a
commendable job in debunking rumours in affected localities, they also
need to use WhatsApp's virally to quell these rumours.

And lastly, we must realize that social media and the mainstream media
feed off each other. Last year mainstream media spread a hoax like 'Blue
Whale Challenge', which even led to a Supreme Court order against the
spread of a non-existent app. Thus, we also need to advocate greater
press responsibility too. Research shows that since news over social
media often comes from friends and family, people wrongly tend to trust
it more. We need to be more critical of what we receive, even if from
mainstream media, and, perhaps more importantly, in what we send.