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Burned to Death Because of a Rumour on WhatsApp

posted by martyb on Wednesday November 14 2018, @02:55PM   
from the Wizard's-First-Rule dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Two innocent men have been burned alive by a massive lynch mob after WhatsApp rumours branded them child abductors.

A large crowd gathered outside the police station after rumours spread about the two men.

A mob dragged two men out of a police station, savagely beat them and then set them on fire, killing them, after a false rumour was spread on WhatsApp about the pair being child kidnappers.

The mother of one of the men made a desperate plea for the crowd to stop as she watched the lynching unfold on a Facebook livestream.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-46145986

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Original Submission

• Re:So... Re:So... (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @03:44PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @03:44PM (#761757)

  Less so losing faith that a criminal will go unpunished, more so losing faith that the justice system will come down on the instigators and participants like a ton of bricks.

  People have the same emotions and urges everywhere. In Hinter-Islamistan, people get a taste for honor killings, since nothing will happen to the perpetrators. In the US you get swatters, because the police will only make an effort to find them of the consequences of the assault are too politically egregious.

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• Re:So... (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @07:53PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @07:53PM (#761873)

  That's exactly what they want you to think. It's the 21st century white man's burden. "Washington’s censorship regime goes global." Facebook deletes WSWS post on Sri Lanka [wsws.org]:

  Facebook’s action comes amid a growing demand in the Western press that the social media giant step up political censorship in developing countries, with Sri Lanka singled out in particular.

  A leading role in this campaign has been played by the New York Times, which has published a series of articles claiming, absurdly, that freedom of expression on the internet is responsible for communal violence in developing countries, including Sri Lanka.

  The Times complained in an April 21 front-page article that amid “Facebook’s rapid expansion in the developing world,” the company “pushes whatever content keeps users on the site longest—a potentially damaging practice in countries with weak institutions.”

  In an article focused almost exclusively on Sri Lanka, the reference to “countries with weak institutions” is a euphemism for former colonies. The Times is implying that unless Facebook censors speech in such countries, their populations, apparently unable to control themselves, will massacre each other out of communal hatred.

  The Times, speaking for the “Quiet Americans” of the US intelligence agencies, claims that the people of developing countries must be gagged and told what to think by American corporations to keep them from committing criminal acts. Such arguments border on open racism: a 21st century invocation of the “white man’s burden.” The only justifiable response to this neo-colonialist garbage is contempt for the hacks who churn it out.

  Same applies to the much hyped reports of mob justice in India and apparently now Mexico. Perhaps the media felt like hyping an event in Mexico today to help build the impression that the migrant caravan are a bunch of uncivilized criminals.

  (Don't be distracted by the media's constant Trump distraction. Trump has done nothing that is out of line with the program the elites have been putting in place for some time now in Western countries.)

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