A violent murder in a Brazilian beach town shows the danger of rumor on social media. According to BBC, a woman by the name, Maria De Jesus, a 33 year old mother of two was attacked by a mob using stones and heavy sticks. She was lynched to death in broad day light in Guaruja, near San Paulo. A community who gets their news fix on local facebook pages....What does this have to do with FB?
Apparently, rumors had circulated in the town about a woman kidnapping local children for rituals. The stories were posted on facebook despite the fact that the people running the page were told by police that the rumor was not true. The story alleged that the kidnapper was always carrying a bible...Well, Ms. De Jesus was carrying a bible on the day she was attacked and was seen giving a banana to a child....
De Jesus' lawyer doesn't think the owner of the page is a murderer but he still think the man needs to take responsibility for his action.
The administrators of the facbook page say, they did post the police report that there were no reporting of kidnapped children of the page but also admitted to not taking the earlier post down and continued discussing the rumor.....(huge mistake)!!!
This is a lesson, we can all learn from. Stuff happens very quickly and we all need to be mindful of what we do on the internet. Currently, there is not law in Brazil that would criminalize spreading rumors on social media but i think with this development that might change........
Source ~ BBCTrending
No comments:
Post a Comment