Another woman lynched in India after WhatsApp rumours
Killing comes despite pledge from company to try to limit the ability of users to spread messages, after threats from New Delhi government
A mob lynched a woman in India after rumours circulated on WhatsApp about child kidnappers, police said on Monday, days after the messaging firm said it was introducing restrictions on forwarding messages.
More than 20 people have been killed in similar incidents in the past two months, leaving Indian authorities and Facebook-owned WhatsApp scrambling to find a solution. India is the messaging software company’s biggest market.
Police said nine people have been arrested and more are being sought after they found the middle-aged woman’s mutilated body near a forest area in the Singrauli district of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday.
The accused men told police they caught hold of the woman late on Saturday after finding her moving suspiciously and seeing a flurry of WhatsApp messages about gangs of child kidnappers in the area, said Singrauli police chief Riyaz Iqbal.
“We are trying to identify the victim and have circulated her picture to all the police stations,” Iqbal said.