Fake News On WhatsApp Leads To 2 More Burned Alive Today By Mobs

||| Enfoque/BBC |||

A general hysteria has taken over in several communities across multiple countries. The first reports of people being killed over fake news meant to rile up villagers were reported in India. Now, reports of even more deaths are coming from the small town of Acatlan in the central Mexican state of Puebla where two people were burned alive today by an angry mob.

What could stir a mob into such a frenzy as to outright murder members of their own communities? Well, the culprit as ironic as it sounds is "fake news". That's right, fake news is being spread through the free messaging service WhatsApp where some users are preying on the local superstitions of their communities.

In India, one story of how a gang of rapists was terrorizing a village spread and quickly went viral on WhatsApp, the main way of communicating for many poor communities. The hysteria led to parents making their children stay home after school and no one went out alone after dark. One day, a man who was waiting for his girlfriend was lying in some tall grass, two bystanders who saw him there assumed he was spying on children and they called out that they had found a rapist.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Meeting one of the key demands that Govt of India had put on Whatsapp to curb fake messages that triggered mob killings, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Whatsapp?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Whatsapp</a> has appointed a grievance officer for India and detailed out the process for users to flag concerns &amp; complaints, including those around fake news. <a href="https://t.co/hqTrjG0FDk">pic.twitter.com/hqTrjG0FDk</a></p>&mdash; SANJAY BAFNA (@sanjaybafna) <a href="https://twitter.com/sanjaybafna/status/1043869502100758528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 23, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Before the man could escape, a mob had formed and he was beaten to death, all over a fake news article. The latest killings took place in Mexico, a little after midday on August 29. Maura Cordero, the owner of an arts and crafts shop in the small town of Acatlán, saw a large crowd gathering outside the municipal police station which happened to be next to her shop.

The 75-year-old Cordero went to the door and looked out to see dozens of people outside the police station on Reforma Street, the town's main street. The crowd started to swell quickly and soon there were over a hundred people gathered. She then saw a police car pass by with two men in a small jailhouse cage in the back. The mob of people was following the police vehicle with the two detainees.

The police tried to placate the mob saying the two were only minor offenders and not child abductors but the crowd continued to grow. Inside the station, 21-year-old Ricardo Flores, a local who grew up in Acatlan but moved to Xalapa to study law, and his uncle Alberto Flores, a 43-year-old farmer who had spent many decades in a community on the outskirts of Acatlan, were being held for their own safety.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">After Mob Killings, WhatsApp May Restrict Forwards To 5 Chats In India <a href="https://t.co/LhfJKWBXYe">https://t.co/LhfJKWBXYe</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NDTVNewsBeeps?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NDTVNewsBeeps</a> <a href="https://t.co/qNOjCdszx1">pic.twitter.com/qNOjCdszx1</a></p>&mdash; NDTV (@ndtv) <a href="https://twitter.com/ndtv/status/1020181587831422976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The two men had done nothing wrong other than purchasing more construction supplies for a concrete water well they were working on when the paranoid locals accused them of being child abductors that viral WhatsApp messages had warned about despite there being no evidence they had broken the law. As an angry mob began to form, police arrived to take the pair away for "disturbing the peace" but in reality, it was to save their lives.

An example of the viral messages spreading on Whatsapp was one that read, "Please everyone is alert because a plague of child kidnappers has entered the country." The message appeared on every users' phone and continued, "It appears that these criminals are involved in organ trafficking…In the past few days, children aged four, eight and 14 have disappeared and some of these kids have been found dead with signs that their organs were removed. Their abdomens had been cut open and were empty."

Francisco Martinez, a long-time resident of Acatlán known as "El Tecuanito", was the main culprit for whipping the townspeople into a frenzy. "People of Acatlán de Osorio, Puebla, please come give your support, give your support," he said. "Believe me, the kidnappers are now here." Another man walked among the crowd collecting money to buy gasoline to burn the pair with. At the same time, police inside were bracing for the inevitable.

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The angry mob stormed the police station wrenching open the gate and dragged out the two innocent men. They were savagely beaten while others recorded then the gasoline the crowd had purchased was poured all over them. One eyewitness said he believed Ricardo was already dead before the fire was ignited, but his uncle was not so fortunate. Both men were burned alive while the sick bystanders stood by and filmed.

A local cab driver said, "It was one of the most horrific things that ever happened in Acatlán. The columns of smoke could be seen from every point in the town." This is what happens where there is no "ICE", no law and order, no rules at the border. This is what Democrats want, they want to abolish the organization keeping Americans safe and these mobs out of America. Too bad these two men never had a chance. Alberto Flores was a father of three young girls.

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<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Brett Gundlock</span>

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Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46145986?ocid=socialflow_twitter