The WhatsApp hoax about migrant workers facing death threats in Kerala might have a disturbing nativistic subtext, according to State police investigators.
A fake audio clip about a hotel owner in Kozhikode bludgeoning to death a migrant worker had recently spawned a visceral sense of insecurity among other-State labourers in North Kerala. It provided grist for rumour mills and prompted at least 300 labourers in the region to leave. Some of those who left might have gone home for Deepavali holidays.
Investigators said the false propaganda could be the handiwork of politically and communally motivated shadowy groups using fictitious profiles.
An examination of their past social media activity has revealed attempts to drive a schism between the local population and migrant workers in communally sensitive localities. They based their misinformation campaign on the supposition that presence of migrant labourers, an estimated 20 lakh, could potentially change Kerala’s demography to the political advantage of specific minority communities. The shady groups have also attempted to portray migrants as criminals when, in fact, they were overwhelmingly victims of exploitation.
The police pointed out that the bulk of the migrant labour community in Kerala relied exclusively on WhatsApp groups to communicate with each other and their families in Assam, West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand. Investigators said it now appeared that the mischief makers had used the same technology platform to convey the false impression that Kerala society was becoming increasingly hostile to migrants. They conceded that running to ground the perpetrators of the disinformation campaign might be difficult given the fact that such platforms used encrypted communication.
Senior police officers pointed out that a similar set of regional language chauvinists had unleashed a comparable fake news campaign in Mumbai last year to drive out migrant workers. They have also not ruled out the possibility that business rivalry between labour suppliers could have motivated the fake news.
The police have launched a social media campaign to counter the attempt to sow division between migrant workers and the indigenous population and to reassure other-State workers.
