Who's Behind Viral WhatsApp Hoaxes?
Messages warning of child kidnapping gangs have been going viral on WhatsApp in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka over the past few weeks. The messages, with graphic images, claim that children were being kidnapped and killed, so that their organs can be harvested. It has made paranoid locals start patrolling their neighbourhoods with sticks, beating up strangers, on the slightest suspicion. The victims, in most cases, are people from other states in search of work. Fake news is spilling real blood.
