<unlike-us> unlike-us Digest, Vol 90, Issue 9

[Jennifer]

https://www.vpro.nl/programmas/tegenlicht/kijk/afleveringen/2018-2019/india-in-tijd-van-woede.html

A recent Tegenlicht (Backlight) episode (narrated in Dutch) on India in times of rage. Not necessarily about politics, but about how huge unemployment leads to rage, frustration, feeding a return to fundamentalist hinduism, protection of the holy cow. People who deal in cowmeat, mostly muslims are labeled as criminals and hunted down and lynched. The media of choice: Whatsapp and youtube. The films are shared and liked, giving lynchers status, even in politics.


Best,
Jennifer

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Monday, January 28, 2019 12:00 PM, <unlike-us-request at listcultures.org> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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> 1.  How Volunteers for India's Ruling Party Are Using WhatsApp
>     to Fuel Fake News Ahead of Elections (Jos? Mar?a Mateos)
>
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 27 Jan 2019 12:42:45 -0500
> From: Jos? Mar?a Mateos chema at rinzewind.org
> To: Unlike-us unlike-us at listcultures.org
> Subject: <unlike-us> How Volunteers for India's Ruling Party Are Using
>
>     WhatsApp to Fuel Fake News Ahead of Elections
>
>
> Message-ID: 20190127174245.GB2894 at equipaje
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> http://time.com/5512032/whatsapp-india-election-2019/
>
> > From the article:
>
> --
>
> Ahead of national elections in April and May, India?s political parties
> are pouring money into creating hundreds of thousands of WhatsApp group
> chats to spread political messages and memes. Prime Minister Narendra
> Modi?s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has drawn up plans to have
> three WhatsApp groups for each of India?s 927,533 polling booths,
> according to reports. With each group containing a maximum of 256
> members, that number of group chats could theoretically reach more than
> 700 million people out of India?s population of 1.3 billion.
>
> In reality, the number is likely to be smaller because many people are
> in multiple group chats, and most chats have fewer than 256 members. But
> the strategy reflects a fundamental change in Indian society: at the
> time of the last national polls in 2014, just 21% of Indians owned a
> smartphone; by 2019, that figure is thought to have nearly doubled to
> 39%. And for most of them, WhatsApp is the social media app of choice ?
> by one count, more than 90% of smartphone users have it installed. In
> recognition of that shift, the BJP?s social media chief declared 2019
> the year of India?s first ?WhatsApp elections.?
>
> But according to researchers, as well as screenshots of group chats from
> as recently as January seen by TIME, these WhatsApp group chats
> frequently contain and disseminate false information and hateful
> rhetoric, much of which comes from forwarded messages. Experts say the
> Hindu nationalist BJP is fueling this trend, although opposition parties
> are using the same tactics.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Cheers,
>
> ----------
>
> Jos? Mar?a (Chema) Mateos || https://rinzewind.org/
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Digest Footer
>
> discussion list on critical research & alternatives in social media
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> End of unlike-us Digest, Vol 90, Issue 8