How WhatsApp is trying to solve its fake news problem in India, where group messaging has been used to stir deadly mob violence

India has more new internet users than anywhere in the world, and traditionally relishes storytelling and gossip

Over the next three years, the number of Indians online will increase by more than 58 per cent, to 762 million

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A spectator holds a branded T-shirt during a roadshow for Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 11:09am, 7 Feb 2019Updated: 12:52pm, 8 Feb 2019

The video showed two helmeted men on a motorcycle circling a group of children playing cricket in the street. The motorcycle slowed, and the man in the back seat grabbed one boy and bundled him into his lap as the driver sped off.

Inside a college lecture hall, many of the 200 Indian students and law enforcement officers murmured in recognition. Asked how many had seen the video before, nearly half the students raised their hands.

The clip was part of an anti-kidnapping public service ad produced in next-door Pakistan. But with the ending edited out to make it appear like a real kidnapping, the footage went viral last year on WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging platform with more than 200 million users in India.

What happened next marked a shocking low in the era of fake news.

Users circulated the video along with unsubstantiated claims that child traffickers were running loose in Indian cities, triggering mob attacks that left at least two dozen people dead. The killings reverberated from India to Silicon Valley and forced WhatsApp to confront – far too late, critics say – the deluge of rumours, hoaxes and misinformation swamping its biggest market.

As India heads into a bitter national election campaign involving parties that have frequently peddled half-truths and doctored videos, WhatsApp is mounting a feverish battle against fake news – tinkering with its app, bolstering local fact-checking organisations and airing national ads.