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Violence erupted in West Bengal soon results of the state election were declared. This thread documents how BJP supporting handles seized this as an opportunity to share misinformation and add fuel to the fire.
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Unrelated videos & images have been circulated with incendiary text and hashtags like #BengalBurning #PresidentsRuleinBengal. Several prominent handles including BJP leaders & supporters have been actively involved in sharing these misleading images and videos. 2/n
A video of people dancing with swords and guns was shared as TMC victory celebration. The video can be traced back to at least Sept 2020 and the song 'Khela Hobe' was superimposed on the clip to make it look like it was linked to the polls. 3/n https://www.altnews.in/old-video-shared-as-tmc-celebrating-poll-victory-with-guns-and-swords/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost
The video was shared by several prominent BJP members and supporters. BJP’s Priti Gandhi deleted it several hours after Kolkata Police and CID West Bengal called out the fake news and threatened to take action. It is still available on timeline of another BJP office bearer. 4/n
Another video traced back to at least 2019 has been linked to the West Bengal elections. The video shows vote-rigging in a poll booth and viral claims suggest this was why Mamata Banerjee won the elections. 5/n https://www.altnews.in/old-video-shared-as-vote-rigging-in-ongoing-west-bengal-elections/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost
An old video of a mob attacking a cop and a police vehicle in Odisha’s Bhadrak district was falsely shared as post-poll violence by TMC in West Bengal 6/n https://www.altnews.in/old-video-from-odisha-shared-as-violence-post-wb-polls/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost
A photo of violence during Ram Navami celebrations in Burdwan in 2018 was falsely linked to the post-poll violence in West Bengal. 7/n https://www.altnews.in/2018-image-of-communal-violence-shared-as-post-poll-violence-in-bangal/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost
Similarly, a photo of violence that erupted during Amit Shah's roadshow outside Kolkata's Vidyasagar college in 2019 was falsely linked to the post-poll violence in West Bengal. 8/n https://www.altnews.in/2019-image-of-clash-between-bjp-and-aitc-shared-as-post-poll-violence-in-bengal/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost
A rape and murder of a woman in West Bengal's West Medinipur was linked to post-poll violence, despite local reports, woman’s family and police denying that the crime was politically or communally motivated. It was shared by BJP MP Saumitra Khan and several prominent handles 9/n
West Medinipur SI rubbished the social media claims. Three people have been arrested and the accused have confessed to the crime. The crime had no link to the polls and the victim was not a BJP Mahila Morcha worker as claimed in the viral posts. 10/n https://www.altnews.in/unrelated-case-of-rape-murder-in-west-medinipur-linked-to-west-bengal-post-poll-violence/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost
A recent video of a girl trying to give water to her COVID positive father in a village in Andhra Pradesh was also falsely linked to post-poll violence in West Bengal. Once again BJP members were at the forefront in sharing this video. 11/n https://www.altnews.in/video-of-girl-trying-to-give-water-to-covid-father-in-andhra-linked-to-wb-violence/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost
In yet another instance, several BJP leaders including a party MLA shared a picture of an injured woman from Bangladesh claiming that it is linked to post poll violence by TMC. 12/n
The family of the woman confirmed to AltNews that she was injured in a land-grabbing incident in Bangladesh last year. Her image was falsely linked to post-poll violence in West Bengal. 13/n https://www.altnews.in/old-photo-of-woman-injured-in-bangladesh-linked-to-west-bengal-post-poll-violence/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=newpost
Such was the deluge of misinformation, that AltNews team had to debunk them real-time on Twitter without waiting to write a detailed fact-check 14/n
Misinformation continues to get more outrageous to the extent that BJP West Bengal used an IndiaToday journalist’s picture claiming he is a BJP supporter, who was allegedly killed in post-poll violence. 15/n https://www.altnews.in/bjp-west-bengal-passes-off-a-photo-of-journalist-as-bjp-supporter-who-died-in-political-violence/
More tweets will be added to this thread... the formula however is the same - pick old, unrelated violent images and videos from the internet, add provocative text, where possible give it a communal twist and link it to post-poll violence. 16/n
What does all this achieve? Other than adding fuel to the fire and disturbing the law and order situation in West Bengal, here is another very important agenda. #AapdaMaAvsar 17/n https://twitter.com/free_thinker/status/1389936749422411781
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The search for violent videos continues - this time a gruesome video from Brazil is shared as BJP worker Uttam Ghosh being lynched by TMC goons 18/n https://www.altnews.in/video-from-brazil-shared-as-bjp-worker-uttam-ghosh-lynched-by-tmc-goons-in-west-bengal/