twentyseven killings across nine states in three months over rumours of childlifting have exposed the failure of law and order in the country prompted by courts and government whatsapp has introduced a set of measures that it hopes will halt the speed and reach of fake news jency jacob managing editor of factchecking website boom live tells himanshi dhawan why technology alone is not to blame and how local police intelligence can helpto what extent does whatsapp bear responsibility for the rumours that have led to lynchingsthats a question whatsapp should answer as a factchecker monitoring social media we feel that any platform with a pervasive influence on our daily lives should have a social responsibility code built into its product this means that even as they protect the privacy of their customers social media platforms should consider the misuse of their platforms by bad actors who should not be given the benefit of anonymity the fact that whatsapp has responded after the government warning by saying that they will do more is a healthy sign and we need to see what steps they takewhat can law enforcers and civil society do to counter these rumourslaw enforcers need to relook at traditional ways of policing and identify the gaps emerging out of the various mob lynching cases one of the major trends that we have seen in most of these cases is that it could have been prevented if the local police intelligence network in these districts had been stronger senior cops we have spoken to have privately admitted that they were caught offguard and only came to know later about the videos and images floating on social media platforms as we saw in malegaon where the four dailywage workers were saved from a mob effective policing can make a differencedoes technology merely reflect social divisions and fears or is there something about the design of a tech platform that can shape its effectsin many ways it is both social media amplifies preexisting fears and mistrust of institutions and established social structures so in the past you could pass through a village unnoticed or stop at a junction and ask for directions but now there is the fear of the unknown on both sides the current string of videos that seek to alert residents about child kidnapping is another classic case of fears about your children not being safe around strangers due to several real incidents and the worry that local police is ineffective in protecting them the emphasis of tech platforms on privacy is now unravelling as it is no longer only about national security and terrorist outfits misusing such apps the worry has now spread to local beat policinghas whatsapp blurred the line between media and messaging media has accountability and attribution while messaging is personal communication media had been democratised even before whatsapp came on the scene twitter and facebook came much earlier and changed the rules of the game the reason why whatsapp has blurred the