The real story behind the video fuelling WhatsApp lynchings in India

The original version of a film that has sparked off widespread instances of lynching in India was published on the Karachi based Roshni Helpline’s Facebook page on the 16th of May, 2016. It was accompanied by a rather clickbaity post: This child went out to play #cricket with his friends. What happened next is terrifying…Tailored to look like security camera footage, the minute-long film begins with a duo on a motorcycle grabbing a child. His panicked playmates chase after the abductors and then return to the spot he was taken from, in a state of confusion. Only to see the ‘abductors’ driving back, their playmate in tow. One of the bikers holds up a message that says ‘It takes only a moment to kidnap a child from the streets of Karachi’ followed by a recommendation that parents be more vigilant and assist Roshni Helpline, a Karachi based NGO that specialises in tracking down missing children.

Except, the modified video doing rounds on WhatsApp across India, ends with the footage of the child being abducted. The last few seconds of explanation, and the context setting first frame, have been edited out.

Under a different set of circumstances, the modified version would have been just another dark non-sequitur. An instant favourite with the edgelords of the internet, people who get a rise out creating or sharing the outrageous, the shocking and the bizarre. But, to quote the Roshni Helpline’s Facebook post, ‘What happened next is terrifying…’


27 people lynched to death across 9 states, by mobs believing them to be kidnappers. Across the country, the epidemic has been buffered by a toxic combination of xenophobia, paranoia and the apparent safety that a faceless mob offers its individual participants. Dig a little deeper and some slight method to the madness is evident. For instance, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, Assam, one of the states where a couple of men were lynched, clocks the second highest number of abductions in the country. The fear in that state, according to media reports, is compounded by prevalent local myths like xopadhora, a figure believed to kidnap children, updated for a tech-enabled world and broadcast via instant messaging.

These developments are a horrific endgame to a campaign that perhaps started with the best of intentions. Spectrum Y&R and Y&R Singapore had worked on Kites of Hope, an activation campaign for Roshni Helpline. The idea: to put the faces of missing kids on kites around a local kite flying festival to help a previously unreachable number of people become involved in the search effort. A Y&R spokesperson speaking of the campaign to Brand Equity says, “The experience was beyond rewarding. Putting our talents to work for a cause, especially one that's as precious as helping to find missing children, is not comparable to anything else we do.” The campaign helped reunite 10 children with their parents, according to Y&R.


Acknowledging that “missing children is a multi-faceted and complex issue, which requires multiple efforts,” the agency created the now controversial abduction film. Says the spokesperson “Every year, about 3000 children go missing in Karachi alone, so responsibility starts with the caretakers. We addressed the video to them, asking them to be more aware in safeguarding their children.”

The modification of the video and the consequences it has had across the border, has left the team shocked. Says the spokesperson, “Unfortunately, Roshni Helpline is not the first or the last organisation to have its content distorted by unscrupulous elements. This was a public service video by an organisation that is engaged in remarkable work. It is distressing to say the least that it has been edited and used for malicious purposes with tragic results.”

By way of solution, all the agency has to offer is requesting the public to be vigilant and verify content that appears on social media. And the hope that those who modified and spread the video be speedily brought to justice. The Indian government has demanded Whatsapp up the levels of vigilance and prevent the spread of rumours.

All of which strikes us as shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. While fake news gets a lot of press, anyone who has spent any length of time on social media is aware that fakery is woven intricately into the fabric of its being. People who tut disapprovingly about “barbaric villagers” getting “taken in by an ad” are not above sharing ‘inspirational’ memes with blatantly fake quotes attributed to everyone from Buddha to Napoleon. Pointing these out is a social faux pas, similar to, but a little worse than being a ‘Grammar Nazi.’ Content is social currency, and fakery in various shapes and forms, will keep cropping up as long as people believe their personality is in some way defined by what they share.

Which leaves the onus entirely on creators and sponsors of messages. The potential for misuse is rampant in practically everything that’s created — read up on deep fakes if you haven’t done so already, to get truly horrified. The only solve we can think of is to mount a massive counter campaign, explaining the original context of a misused or modified piece of content. And use every means at one’s disposal to get it across to the largest number of people. No media budget, of course, can match the sheer spread of spontaneous sharing, but a one stop source, preferably in multiple languages, that helps separate facts from fakery can maybe make a critical dent or two.

Over the last few years, the ultimate dream of a marketer is to have the consumer “own” a brand and content and do what they see fit with it. At seminar after seminar, we hear marketers making grand declarations of ceding control to the consumers. Well, maybe its time they took some of that control back.