Despite the efforts of Indian authorities to combat the spread of false information by limiting access to the internet, it has been widely disseminated in the state of Manipur, which is located in the northeastern part of the country.
After a video of a group of men abusing and stripping two women went viral, which sparked outrage in India and beyond, the conflict between the dominant Meitei community and the tribal Kuki minority has recently made headlines throughout the world.
False claims regarding sexual violence
Beginning with the spike in violent incidents that occurred in Manipur in the beginning of May, attacks on women have been a particular source of both false and misleading claims.
As soon as the fighting started on May 3, police cut off mobile internet access in an effort to stem the spread of "disinformation and false rumours, through various social media platforms."
next that, on the next day, it was expanded to encompass all internet services throughout the state.
However, by that time, a gruesome image of the body of a woman who was raped and murdered by Kuki men was already spreading. The body of the lady was seen to be wrapped in a plastic bag, and it was wrongly said that she was a Meitei nurse.
We have information that the image was also circulated on WhatsApp in the area of Churachandpur, which is where fighting broke out on May 3rd. The image had already been viewed on social media, and we have also seen proof that it was shared on WhatsApp.
The assertions made about the image are untrue due to the fact that it does not originate from Manipur at all. It is a photograph of Aayushi Chaudhary, a young woman of 21 years old who passed away in Delhi in November of the previous year. A similar hoax was spread on social media on May 5th, claiming that the bodies of 37 Meitei women who had been raped and murdered, together with the body of a Meitei kid who was seven years old, were at the Shija hospital in Manipur's capital city of Imphal, waiting for post-mortem examinations. This allegation was incorrect.
This assertion was made in a number of posts on Twitter, practically all of which used the exact same phrase. The posts were shared by accounts that had just been created.
The BBC has also observed text messages with the same exact wording being passed about in the native Manipuri language, such as the one shown in the following picture. According to journalists now working in Manipur, it is still feasible to interact with one another via text messaging, despite the fact that cell service has been cut off.
The assertion is not true.
The Shija hospital has stated to the BBC that the event in question did not take place, and that as a private medical institution, they are not permitted to perform post-mortem examinations.
The footage of the assault has encouraged women in Manipur to come out.
Myanmar not Manipur
There are additional examples of content that is incorrect and deceptive, such as a video that is extremely graphic depicting the assault and subsequent killing of a woman on a road, which is stated to be in Manipur.
Late in the month of June, this video began to be circulated with the hashtag #Manipur, and it quickly gained thousands of views. Some people asserted that it depicted the murder of a Kuki woman at the hands of armed men, who were assumed to be from the Meitei community.
It reemerged about a week ago with the same claim, in the midst of statements that it occurred in Manipur.
These assertions, once again, are not true.
The video does not originate from Manipur, and the woman depicted in it is not a Kuki.
It comes from the neighboring country of Myanmar, and the incident took place in June 2022 — a very long time before the hostilities in Manipur began. An Indian fact-checking site has shown that this story is not true.
What exactly is going on in the state of Manipur?
Even while we have no way of knowing how broadly this film was disseminated, we do know that it was sent about within the state of Manipur after the state police issued a public warning that legal action would be taken against anyone who shared it.
Incorrect information regarding the arrest
Even after the violence in Manipur made news on July 19 – when a video emerged showing a mob attack on two women from the Kuki group in early May – misinformation has continued to spread. This was the case even after the video was released.
The following day, rumors began to circulate that a Muslim man had been detained for his claimed involvement in the incident. Among those who circulated this information was Tejinder Pall Singh Bagga, a politician who is a member of India's ruling BJP party.
Mr. Bagga's tweet had more than a million views and hundreds of retweets, and it referred to the man as the "main accused of [the] Manipur case." The term "the Manipur case" is generally believed to refer to the attack on the two ladies.
However, this information was false since, although a Muslim guy was arrested by Manipur police on that day, the arrest was for an entirely different reason.
The Muslim male was not linked in any way to the assaults that were committed against the women, since the police have made it abundantly apparent that the arrests were carried out in separate locations.
ANI, a news outlet that also erroneously reported the arrest of this individual in relation with the mob attack, later reversed itself, blaming their error on the "erroneous reading of tweets" from the police. ANI reported that the man had been arrested in connection with the mob attack.
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