Death by ‘fake news’: social media-fuelled lynchings shock India

This photo taken on July 9, 2018 shows Gopal Chandra Das, father of lynching victim Nilotpal Das, speaking to journalists at his residence in Guwahati, the capital city of India’s northeastern state of Assam. The smartphone footage shows the two blood-soaked men pleading for their lives. Moments later they were dead, two more victims of lynchings sparked by rumours spread on Facebook and WhatsApp in India. Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das were beaten to death by a mob in Karbi Anglong district that suspected the youths to be child abductors on June 8. / AFP PHOTO / Biju BORO / TO GO WITH INDIA-TECHNOLOGY-MEDIA-INTERNET,FOCUS by Alexandre MARCHAND

PANJURI KACHARI, India: The smartphone footage shows the two blood-soaked men pleading for their lives. Moments later they were dead, two more victims of lynchings sparked by rumours spread on Facebook and WhatsApp in India. 

The two men were young and well-educated. Gregarious, dreadlocked musician Nilotpal Das, 29, and his businessman friend Abhijeet Nath, 30, were both from Guwahati, capital of the northeastern state of Assam.