Skip to main content

Counter narratives & counter radicalization

July 11, 2017 | Expert Insights

With communal riots breaking out in West Bengal, some political leaders have taken to Facebook to share posts that have been criticized for being incendiary.

Social media has become a big tool in fanning tensions in the North 24 Pargans district in West Bengal as it was a “blasphemous” Facebook post that had initially sparked off the violence that resulted in the death of one.

Background

The violence began in July 2017, when a 17-year-old an offensive post about Prophet Muhammad. Within days of riots breaking out, at least six police vehicles as well as a number of shops and houses were torched by a mob. The Central government had to send troops to assuage the situation.

This isn’t the first time social media became a tool for fanning violence. In 2013, during the Muzaffarnagar riots, a politician had been arrested for uploading a fake video on Facebook depicting a Muslim mob brutally murdering Hindu youth.

In 2014, a controversial Facebook post with defamatory content about two Hindu kings as well as the late Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray provoked violent protests in Maharashtra.

In 2017 violence erupted in the state of Odisha after some people had allegedly posted negative comments on a Facebook page.

Police in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi have set up cyber-crime labs to monitor such content.

Analysis

People have taken to social media to upload false content. A person has been arrested for uploading a photograph from a Bhopuri film and trying to pass it off as an event that actually took place during the riots in West Bengal. The Chief Minister of the state, Mamata Banerjee has spoken against this trend alleging that leaders of the opposition party have uploaded pictures of mob violence that took place in Kumillah and Bangladesh. 

A lot of inflammatory content has been circulated in the recent times through Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp among other platforms. And they have played a key role in the escalation of violence.

Assessment

Our assessment is that governments and elected leaders should play an active role in developing quick counter-narratives. They should be proactive in having sensors on the ground about such possible threats. They must be quick to develop narratives and disseminate it so that it can temper the situation. They should also closely work with organizations such as Facebook, Twitter to ensure that fake and inflammatory content is removed as soon as it gets uploaded. Time is of essence as it would take hardly 30 minutes to organize a flash mob that can engage in violence and destroy social cohesion.