How WhatsApp is battling misinformation in India, where 'fake news is part of our culture'
GUWAHATI, India - The video showed two helmeted men on a motorcycle circling a group of children playing cricket in the street. The motorcycle slowed, and the man in the backseat grabbed one boy and bundled him into his lap as the driver sped off.
Inside a college lecture hall, many of the 200 Indian students and law enforcement officers murmured in recognition. Asked how many had seen the video before, nearly half the students raised their hands.
The clip was part of an anti-kidnapping public service ad produced in next-door Pakistan. But with the ending edited out to make it appear like a real kidnapping, the footage went viral last year on WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging platform with more than 200 million users in India.
What happened next marked a shocking low in the era of fake news.
Users circulated the video along with unsubstantiated claims that child traffickers were
