How did tweets from India spread Hindu-Muslim unrest in Britain?

 In Leicester, central England, there were rumors that a Muslim girl had been kidnapped and that masked men had come from a Hindu temple to fight.

A cricket match between India and Pakistan sparked local outrage and soon Hindu and Muslim men were fighting each other on the streets of central England. According to Reuters, it was a "social media storm" that took place on another continent and its real effects were seen in the UK city of Leicester, where police made around 50 arrests and a community was torn apart. A spokesperson for fact-checking website Logically, which analyzed the social media posts, said: 'This is a strong example of how Twitter hashtags can use dubious inflammatory claims to fuel tensions on the ground. can give.' Most of the inflammatory tweets, rumors and lies originated in India, experts say, showing the power of 'unbridled social media' to spread misinformation and unrest across the continent.

Leicester mayor Peter Soulsby told BBC radio: 'I've seen a lot of things on social media that are now very distorted and some of them are completely out of touch with the relationship between different communities. are liars.' Leicestershire Police Chief Rob Nixon told the BBC that misinformation on social media played a 'huge role' in last month's unrest. Responding to some of these claims, the police themselves took to social media and said that they had thoroughly investigated reports that three men had attempted to abduct a teenage girl and They found no truth in this online story. Rob Nixon said: 'We ask that you only share information on social media that you know to be true.' Fact-checkers also found no truth in claims that gangs of masked hooligans were sent to Leicester. An analysis revealed that many misleading posts accusing Hindus and Hindu sites of attacks were India. Made from About 80 percent of tweets with geographic coordinates or geotagged information were from India,

, Logically said: "The involvement of high-profile figures in India sparked debate, which was an important factor."

The 'scary' hashtag

Fact Check confirmed what many Leicester residents had suspected for years that online misinformation and abuse aimed at religious minorities came from users in India, while the social media platform Farms were either not doing anything to check this or what they were doing was inadequate. "What happened in Leicester did not happen by accident," says Kewal Bharadya of the South Asia Solidarity Group, a non-profit organization of the British community. He said: 'Friends and family have been sending fake news and misinformation for years. This is a never-ending stream of propaganda by the troll army.

The Indian High Commission in Nandan said in a statement that it "strongly" condemned the violence against the Indian community in Leicester and the vandalism of "Hindu religious places and symbols". Some observers and human rights organizations say India's ruling Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has a hand in the social media war, which targets religious and ethnic minorities. The BJP came to power in India in 2014 and won more votes than ever in 2019, crediting its success to its technology cell and social media prowess, backed by thousands of supporters who it calls digital. Called 'Yodha' or warrior. Human rights organizations say the BJP's technology cell as well as government-appointed cyber volunteers often abuse religious minorities and spread misinformation about them on social media. In a recent report, the Dalit rights group Equality Labs said that through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and thousands of WhatsApp and Telegram chat groups, the Indian community abroad is 'nationalist, Islamophobic and casteist. 'Misinformation' about Paat is spreading.