NPR

Fake News Turns Deadly In India

In recent months, about two dozen people across India have been beaten to death by mobs driven to violence by what they've read on social media and messaging apps.
Harssh Poddar, a senior police official, addresses a village meeting at a rural school near Malegaon, in northern Maharashtra state. He warns families to be skeptical of what they read online. Earlier this month, Poddar helped rescue five people from being killed by a mob in his constituency.

Iram Sabah, mother of two, is terrified by messages her family has been receiving on their smartphones.

Her husband recently was forwarded a video that shows a child's mutilated body. It's unclear where or when the video is from, or whether it's been doctored. A voice implores people to forward it to others, and to stay vigilant — that kidnappers are on the loose.

Sabah, 27, doesn't know if the video is fake or real. But she's not taking any chances.

"When my children go outside to play, I'm really scared," she says in an interview at her

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