mob lynching in india research paper

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The crime vanishes: Mob lynching, hate crime, and police discretion in India

• Published: 17 July 2020
• Volume 11 , pages 33–59, ( 2020 )

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• M Mohsin Alam Bhat 1 ,
• Vidisha Bajaj 1 &
• Sanjana Arvind Kumar 1  

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Amidst high-profile incidents of hate violence against religious and caste minorities, the Indian Supreme Court laid down a series of guidelines to address mob violence and lynching in its July 2018 Tehseen Poonawalla order. The order mandated a police supervisory structure and stronger official accountability, more stringent penal provisions, victim and witness protection, and more expansive compensation and rehabilitation schemes. It also recommended the enactment of an anti-lynching legislation. This article contributes to the conversation about the order’s implementation by drawing from the empirical work conducted by Jindal Global Law School’s (JGLS) legal clinic on hate crimes. It focuses on how the police deploy their official discretion in investigating and prosecuting incidents of mob violence and lynching. First, based on detailed interviews of police officials, the article shows how the ambiguity of the category of lynching continues to plague the implementation of the order. Second, taking a case study of a potential hate crime investigation, it shows how the police structures investigations and charges to undermine the goals of criminal law. This article shows that police officials use their discretion to construct lynching — during various stages of investigation and charging — to obscure and invisibilise the crime. This quotidian exercise of discretion is shaped by broader systemic problems in India’s criminal justice system, especially its lack of independence, inadequate training, and institutional bias. The article advocates that these systemic concerns must be integrated in a meaningful response to mob lynching and hate crimes in India.

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Tushar Gandhi v Union of India Writ Petition (Civil) No. 732 of 2017 (Written Submission on Behalf of the Petitioner by Ms. Indira Jaising, Senior Advocate) [4-5]. http://theleaflet.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Written-submissions-by-Indira-Jaising-in-Lynching.pdf . Accessed 12 May 2020.

The Court clubbed all petitions culminating in the 17 July 2018 order. See Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (2018) 9 SCC 501.

See Avani Mehta Sood, ‘Gender Justice through Public Interest Litigation: Case Studies from India’ (2008) 41(3) Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 833, 847-850; AG Noorani, ‘Accountability for Torture’ (1999) 34(45) Economic and Political Weekly 3159; Manoj Mate, ‘Elite Institutionalism and Judicial Assertiveness in the Supreme Court of India’ (2014) 28(2) Temple International and Comparative Law Journal 361.

In this article, we use the phrase ‘hate violence’ synonymously with ‘hate crime’ and ‘targeted violence’ — to mean violence directed at victims partly or wholly motivated on the ground of their identity. For a discussion on hate crimes as these forms of bias crimes, see Nathan Hall, Hate Crime (2 nd edn, Routledge 2013).

See Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (n 3) ‘C. Punitive Measures’ (i) & (ii) [40].

Two relevant Supreme Court decisions that laid detailed guidelines for disciplining the police are D.K. Basu v State of West Bengal (1997) 1 SCC 416 (laying down procedures of accountability in cases of police custodial deaths) and Prakash Singh v Union Of India (2006) 8 SCC 1 (laying down guidelines for securing the independence of the police). Human rights organisations have consistently noted the failure of the state machinery to implement the Court’s orders and guidelines. See e.g. Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Seven Steps to Police Reform (2010); Human Rights Watch, Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse, and Impunity in the Indian Police (2009).

Compliance reports of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Lakshadweep, Jharkhand, Gujarat, and Chandigarh on file with authors.

See nn 51-52 and accompanying text.

See n 52, nn 112-115 and accompanying text.

See e.g. Mrinal Satish,  Discretion, Discrimination and the Rule of Law: Reforming Rape Sentencing in India (Cambridge University Press 2017).

See David H Bayley, The Police and Political Development in India (Princeton University Press 2015); KS Subramanian, Political Violence and the Police in India (SAGE 2007); Ernest L Nickels and Arvind Verma, ‘Dimensions of Police Culture: A Study in Canada, India, and Japan’ (2008) 31(2) Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management 186. For a review of the policy debates, see Anviti Chaturvedi, Police Reforms in India (PRS Legislative Research 2017).  https://www.prsindia.org/sites/default/files/parliament_or_policy_pdfs/Police%20Reforms%20in%20India.pdf . Accessed 19 March 2020.

See Mayur Suresh, ‘The “Paper Case”: Evidence and Narrative of a Terrorism Trial in Delhi’ (2019) 53(1) Law and Society Review 173; Pratiksha Baxi, ‘Justice is a Secret: Compromise in Rape Trials’ (2010) 44(3) Contributions to Indian Sociology 207; Pooja Satyogi, ‘Law, Police and ‘Domestic Cruelty’: Assembling Written Complaints from Oral Narratives’ (2019) 53(1) Contributions to Indian Sociology 46; Arvind Verma, ‘Maintaining Law and Order in India: An Exercise in Police Discretion’ (1997) 7(1) International Criminal Justice Review 65; J Belur and others, ‘Police Investigations: Discretion Denied Yet Undeniably Exercised’ (2014) 25(5) Policing and Society 439; Beatrice Jauregui, ‘Dirty Anthropology: Epistemologies of Violence and Ethical Entanglements in Police Ethnography’ in William Garriott (ed), Policing and Contemporary Governance: The Anthropology of Police in Practice (Palgrave Macmillan 2013).

See Bayley (n 12) 23 (‘…considering the task of the police simply as law enforcement, the police may exercise discretion with potential political significance with respect to the emphasis given to prevention as opposed to punishment; the kind of laws enforced; the occasions on which any law is enforced; and the number of law-enforcing functions combined in the hands of the police’). See also Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Service (Russell Sage Foundation 2010) 13 (arguing that the police, as ‘street-level bureaucrats have considerable discretion in determining the nature, amount, and quality of benefits and sanctions provided by their agencies’); Michael Brown, Working the Street: Police Discretion and the Dilemmas of Reform’ ( Russell Sage Foundation 1981); Matthew Bacon, ‘Police Culture and the New Policing Context’ in Jennifer M Brown (ed), The Future of Policing (Routledge 2014) 108-109; Jeannine Bell, ‘Policing Hatred: Police Bias Units and the Construction of Hate Crime’ (1997) 2(5) Michigan Journal of Race and Law 421, 451-453.

See e.g. Verma (n 13) 66-67.

See e.g. Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Feudal Forces: Reform Delayed: Moving from Force to Service in South Asian Policing (2008). See also Thomas Blom Hansen, ‘Sovereigns Beyond the State: On Legality and Authority in Urban India’ in Thomas Blom Hansen and Finn Stepputat (eds),  Sovereign Bodies: Citizens, Migrants, and States in the Postcolonial World (Princeton University Press 2009).

Harsh Mander, ‘Broken Lives and Compromise: Shadow Play in Gujarat’ (2012) 47(8) Economic & Political Weekly 90, 91.

The National Human Rights Commission report on The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 expounds that, ‘the police resorts to various machinations to discourage SCs/STs from registering cases, to dilute the seriousness of the violence, to shield the accused persons from arrest and prosecution and, in some cases, themselves inflict violence.’ See National Human Rights Commission, Report on Prevention of Atrocities Against SCs, New Delhi (2002) 113-114 cited in National Coalition for Strengthening SCs & STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Report Card, 20 Years Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (2010) 13.; Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse, and Impunity in the Indian Police (n 7) 45.

Beatrice Jauregui, Provisional Authority: Police, Order, and Security in India (University of Chicago Press 2016) 64 -71.

ibid 73 (‘The police process of investigating and deciding who may be a “real criminal” is configured not only by legal codes and official regulations, but also by a host of unofficial modes of sociality and power plays.’).

See Satyogi (n 13) 46, 55, 63; Suresh (n 13); Baxi (n 13) 216 (noting that, ‘the standardised frameworks of writing a police complaint structure the narrative, as well as filter through it a certain idea of relevant facts in anticipation of a trial’).

The Clinic’s research was conducted under the supervision of one of the authors, M Mohsin Alam Bhat, who was the Course Instructor (CI) and Principal Investigator (PI). The PI was the primary interviewer. The student participants in the Clinic assisted the PI in recording the interviews, note-taking, supplementing the questions, and putting down field observations and notes. All interviews were based on semi-structured interviews prepared in advance. All the interviews were conducted in Hindi. Since we could not audio-record the interviews with the police officials, we transcribed them instantaneously while roughly translating in English. We preserved some vignettes of the interviews in the original Hindi, especially if the language our respondents used suggested an important element for our research. In addition to the semi-structured interviews, we also recorded field observations and notes. Field observations and notes recorded spontaneous interactions with police officials, families, victims and survivors. These gave us the context for the interviews and helped us in our findings. For this reason, we use the phrase ‘interviews and interactions’ throughout this article to refer the empirical basis of our findings. All aspects of the project received ethics approval from O.P. Jindal Global University’s Research and Ethics Review Board Committee before we conducted the field research.

See CJP Team, ‘The Murder of Pehlu Khan’ ( CJP , 26 October 2017). https://cjp.org.in/the-murder-of-pehlu-khan/ . Accessed 12 May 2020.

See Human Rights Watch, Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities (2019) 28-29; Anjana Prakash, ‘A Detailed Breakdown of Exactly How Justice was Denied to Pehlu Khan ( The Wire , 26 September 2019). https://thewire.in/law/a-detailed-breakdown-of-exactly-how-justice-was-denied-to-pehlu-khan . Accessed 12 May 2020. For the latest developments in the case, see PTI, ‘Pehlu Khan Lynching Case: 2 Teenagers Sentenced to 3 Years in Special Home’ India Today (Jaipur, 13 March 2020). https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/raj-minors-lynching-pehlu-khan-juvenile-home-1655293-2020-03-13 . Accessed 12 May 2020.

Sagar, ‘ “ Mulleh, Kattale Saaley. Maro Sabko. Maaro. Maaro”: How Passengers on a Train Compartment Discarded Their Humanity’ ( The Caravan , 27 June 2017). https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/how-passengers-on-train-discarded-humanity . Accessed 12 May 2020.

PTI, ‘Junaid Lynching: Main Accused ‘Confessed’ to Crime, Say Police’( The Hindu, 9 July 2019). https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/junaid-lynching-main-accused-confessed-to-crime-say-police/article19245913.ece . Accessed 12 May 2020.

PTI, ‘Junaid Lynching Case: HC Grants Interim Bail to Key Accused Naresh’ ( News18 , 3 October 2018). https://www.news18.com/news/india/junaid-lynching-case-hc-grants-interim-bail-to-key-accused-naresh-1897431.html . Accessed 12 May 2020.

For a documentation of lynching cases, see Citizens Against Hate, Lynching Without End: Fact Finding Investigation into Religiously-Motivated Vigilante Violence in India (2017); DOTO Documentation of the Oppressed. https://dotodatabase.com . Accessed 30 May 2020; Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities (n 26).

Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (n 3) [18].

Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC).

See Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (n 3) ‘C. Punitive Measure’ (i) [40].

See e.g. Section 18 of The Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act, 2015; Section 13 of The Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976.

Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities (n 30) 5-6 & 17-19.

See Lynching Without End: Fact Finding Investigation into Religiously-Motivated Vigilante Violence in India (n 30); Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities (n 26).

For a general introduction, see Armin Rosencranz and Sharachchandra Lélé, ‘Supreme Court and India's Forests’ (2008) 43(5) Economic and Political Weekly 11; Arghya Sengupta and Sanhita Ambast, ‘Judicial Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights: Lessons from the Use of the ‘Continuing Mandamus’ by the Supreme Court of India’ in Philippe Reyniers and Karolina Podstawa (eds), Courts and New Governance: Towards Experimentalist Jurisprudence (Hart Publishing 2012).

For an impressive example of the Court using these mechanisms and techniques, see the enforcement of the Right to Food orders in Lauren Birchfield and Jessica Corsi, ‘Between Starvation and Globalization: Realizing the Right to Food in India’ (2010) 31(4) Michigan Journal of International Law 691.

Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (n 3) [2, 17].

ibid [2, 12].

See e.g. ibid [40].

M Mohsin Alam Bhat, ‘Mob, Murder, Motivation: The Emergence of Hate Crime Discourse in India’ (2020) Socio-Legal Review 16(1) (forthcoming).

See Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights , Hate Crime Laws: A Practical Guide (2009) 16.

For an account of the hate crime paradigm and its appreciation of group subordination, see Barbara Perry, In the Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes (Routledge 2001).

Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (n 3) [20].

Joanna Perry, ‘The Migration and Integration of the Hate Crime Approach in India’ (2020) 11(1) Jindal Global Law Review (forthcoming).

For a discussion on the legislative activity around lynching after Tehseen Poonawalla , see Bhat (n 43).

See n 8 for a list of compliance reports on file with authors.

UP Victim Compensation Scheme, Notification No. 653/Six-Po-9-14-31(90)-2010 dated 9 April 2014 (amended on 14 June 2016), mentioned in the Uttar Pradesh compliance report, 4 September 2018, on file with authors.

The Quint did a Right to Information (RTI) – driven story to find out the extent to which the Supreme Court guidelines to curb lynching have been followed by the central and state governments. It focused on the Guideline where the government had to broadcast the message that lynchings are prohibited (See Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (n 3) ‘A. Preventive Measures’ (ix) [40]). As per the report, the RTI queries were continuously transferred to different departments which claimed to not have the required information. Anjali Bhardwaj was quoted saying, ‘The info should be readily available with the govt. The fact that it needs to be transferred is an indication of a lack of political will of the govt to implement measures to curb lynchings.’ It further found, through RTIs, that the Bureau of Outreach and Communication (BOC) received ‘No such request’ to spread message on lynchings. Sanjay Hegde reacted to this and said, ‘It is obvious that the central government has chosen to ignore the SC guidelines as it has not expended any money on any direct campaign to spread awareness against lynchings as required by the SC judgment.’ He further stated that as the matter is not listed before the court for monitoring, it is unlikely that the situation will change. Aishwarya S Iyer, ‘Govt Did Little to Execute SC Guidelines on Lynchings, RTI Reveals’ ( The Quint, 19 November 2019). https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/supreme-court-guidelines-on-lynching-rti-central-government . Accessed 25 February 2020. See also Manu Sebastian, ‘Whither Rule of Law? The Glaring Defiance of SC Guidelines to Curb Mob Lynching’ ( LiveLaw, 27 June 2019). https://www.livelaw.in/columns/sc-guidelines-to-curb-mob-lynching-145924 . Accessed 21 February 2020 (The article adumbrates that nothing substantial has changed on the ground as not even the bare minimum of broadcasting on radio, television and other media platforms that, lynching and mob violence will invite serious consequences has been done by the government.).

Salik Ahmad, ‘A Year On, State Govts Drag Feet on SC’s Guidelines to Combat Lynchings, Vigilantism’ ( Outlook, 16 September 2019). https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-news-mob-lynching-unlimited-vigilante-brutality-hits-top-gear-as-law-plays-catch-up/302095 . Accessed 21 February 2020.

The Economic Times reported that the matter of lynching law came up in the Upper House of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) where DMK member Tiruchi Siva had asked the government why the President had not given assent to the Manipur and Rajasthan Bills. The article states that Amit Shah had responded saying he will have a committee of public prosecutors look into it. See ET Bureau, ‘States' Views Sought on Need for Mob Lynching Law’ ( The Economic Times , 4 December 2019). https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/states-views-sought-on-need-for-mob-lynching-law/articleshow/72374556.cms?from=mdr . Accessed 26 February 2020.

Pranjal Kishore and Sanjay Hegde, ‘One Year After SC Recommended a Lynching Law, Is Anybody Listening?’ ( The Wire , 17 July 2019). https://thewire.in/law/supreme-court-lynching-law-guidelines . Accessed 25 February 2020.

The central government has paid no heed to the Court’s preference for a special law to curb extra judicial activities. So far, the central government has only constituted an Empowered Group of Ministers (GoM) for consulting on the nature of the legislation. See Venkatasubramanian, ‘Mob Lynching: Loopholes in the Law’ ( India Legal , 3 August 2019). https://www.indialegallive.com/constitutional-law-news/supreme-court-news/mob-lynching-loopholes-in-the-law-70241 . Accessed 21 February 2020.

Express New Service, ‘Lynching: 10 States Ignore Supreme Court Guidelines, Get Notices’ ( The New Indian Express , 27 July 2019). https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/jul/27/lynching-10-states-ignore-sc-guidelines-get-notices-2010028.html . Accessed 25 February 2020; ANI, ‘SC Notice to Centre, States for Implementation of Guidelines to Prevent Mob Lynching’ ( Business Standard , 26 July 2019). https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/sc-notice-to-centre-states-for-implementation-of-guidelines-to-prevent-mob-lynching-119072600706_1.html . Accessed 26 February 2020.

Both English and Hindi news media use the word lynchin g to describe these incidents. There is no specific Hindi word that is conventionally used to describe them.

See PTI, ‘Man Beaten to Death in Haryana over Suspicion of Cattle Theft’ ( NDTV , 4 August 2018). https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/man-allegedly-beaten-to-death-in-haryana-over-suspicion-of-cattle-theft-1895131 . Accessed 12 May 2020; India TV News Desk, ‘Man Beaten to Death in Palwal over Suspicion of Cattle Theft’ ( India TV , 4 August 2018). https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india-haryana-man-beaten-to-death-in-palwal-on-suspicion-of-cattle-theft-mob-lynching-456390 . Accessed 12 May 2020; Navbharat Times, ‘Ab Palwal Mai Mob Lynching, Bheed ne Yuvak ko Peet-peettkar Maar Dia (Now Mob Lynching in Palwal, Young Man Beaten to Death)’ ( Navbharat Times, 4 August 2018). https://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/state/punjab-and-haryana/palwal/now-mob-lynching-in-palwal-young-man-died/articleshow/65263147.cms . Accessed 12 May 2020.

See Kunal Purohit, ‘How a Jumble of Politics, Gender Issues and Economics Foments Hate Crime in Uttar Pradesh’ ( Bloomberg Quint , 26 January 2019). https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/how-a-jumble-of-politics-gender-issues-and-economics-foments-hate-crime-in-uttar-pradesh . Accessed 12 May 2020; HT Correspondent, ‘Seven, Including Two of Victim’s Friends, Held in Bareilly Lynching Case’ ( Hindustan Times , 31 August 2018). https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/seven-including-two-of-victim-s-friends-held-in-bareilly-lynching-case/story-6H5K8uU5RKDrmP4Fh0A3DK.html . Accessed 12 May 2020.

See Sat Singh, ‘“Cow Vigilantes” Beat 24-year-old Cattle Trader for 2 hours in Rohtak, Police Chain Victim Instead of Taking Him to Hospital’ ( Firstpost, 24 January 2019). https://www.firstpost.com/india/chained-and-thrashed-cow-vigilantes-beat-24-year-old-cattle-trader-for-2-hours-in-rohtak-police-chain-victim-instead-of-taking-him-to-hospital-5944481.html . Accessed 12 May 2020.

During our conversations with the police officials, we did not assert or suggest any specific substantive definition of lynching and mob violence. Likewise, in this part, we do not propose or defend any specific definition of this phrase.

RTI responses on file with authors.

Interview in Rohtak (Haryana), 10 June 2019, on file with authors.

Interview in Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), 4 May 2019, on file with authors.

See Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (n 3) ‘A. Preventive Measures’ [40].

Interview in Shamli (Uttar Pradesh), 27 April 2019, on file with authors.

Interview in Palwal (Haryana), 15 April 2019, on file with authors.

See Tehseen S. Poonawalla v Union of India & Others (n 3) ‘B. Remedial Measures’ (v) [40].

See Benjamin Bowling, Robert Reiner, and James W E Sheptycki, The Politics of the Police (5 th edn, Oxford University Press 2019) 164; Jeffrey T. Martin, ‘Police and Policing’ (2018) 47 Annual Review of Anthropology 133.

Elizabeth A Boyd, Richard A Berk, and Karl M. Hamner, ‘“Motivated by Hatred or Prejudice”: Categorization of Hate-motivated Crimes in Two Police Divisions’ (1996) 30(4) Law and Society Review 819, 848.

Valerie Jenness and Ryken Grattet, Making Hate A Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement (Russell Sage Foundation 2001) 130.

See Boyd, Berk, and Hamner (n 77); Susan E Martin, ‘“A Cross-Burning is Not Just an Arson”: Police Social Construction of Hate Crimes in Baltimore County’ (1995) 33(3) Criminology 303; Susan E Martin, ‘Investigating Hate Crimes: Case Characteristics and Law Enforcement Responses’ (1996) 13(3) Justice Quarterly 455; Jenness and Grattet (n 78) 134 (noting that the variation in police interpretation and application of hate crimes was ‘in large part, attributable to differences in the philosophies and the routine practices in the different departments as well as the newness of the criminal category itself.’); Jeannine Bell (n 16) 453.

See Boyd, Berk, and Hamner (n 77) 827; Martin, ‘Investigating Hate Crimes: Case Characteristics and Law Enforcement Responses’ (n 79) 476-478.

Boyd, Berk, and Hamner (n 77) 821.

Jenness and Grattet (n 78) 133.

See Interview in Palwal (Haryana) (n 73).

The Meerut riots of 1987 and the Bhagalpur riots of 1989 saw a great deal of police atrocities and police collusion in killing members of the minority community. In Meerut, the police had dragged out 23 young Muslim boys from Hashimpura, shot them dead and thrown their bodies into a nearby canal. See Asghar Ali Engineer, ‘Gujarat Riots in the Light of the History of Communal Violence’ (2002) 37(50) Economic and Political Weekly 5047, 5051. Zoya Hasan reiterates police complicity and bias by pointing towards the unconcealed cooperation between the RSS, the police and the local and district administration in the Aligarh riots of 1978. Through various enquiries into several riots (Ranchi, Bhiwandi, and Ahmedabad), Hasan highlights how communal bias is ‘apparent either in the selective imposition of the curfew or in the refusal to prevent organized mobs from looting and killing’. She further states that in Uttar Pradesh, the government could not prevent the recurrence of riots in Aligarh as they as they ‘lacked the requisite political will to take action against erring official and politicians who were responsible for communal violence’. See Zoya Khaliq Hasan, ‘Communalism and Communal Violence in India’ (1982) 10(2) Social Scientist 25, 35-36.

Common Cause & Lokniti–Centre for the Study Developing Societies, Status of Policing in India Report 2019: Policy Adequacy and Working Conditions (2019) 33.

ibid 110-130.

ibid 119, 121.

ibid 126-127.

Lipsky (n 14) 45-48.

Bell (n 16) 449.

On the constructive role of clear guidelines, see Bell (n 16) 454-457; Martin, ‘Investigating Hate Crimes: Case Characteristics and Law Enforcement Responses’ (n 79) 460-461, 471 (Jurisdictions like New York have a better record of investigating and prosecuting hate crimes because of the creation of dedicated bias crime units.). Also see Paul Jonson, ‘Hate Crime’ in Jennifer M Brown (ed), The Future of Policing (Routledge 2014) 324 (‘Equipping officers with the analytic tools and skills to appropriately and accurately identify and classify incidents is vital.’).

Quite shockingly, the entry level qualifications for constable in many states is completion of 10 th or 12 th standard and training. Substandard training and low qualifications for constables is contemptible as they constitute 86% of the state police forces and their tasks and responsibilities are wide ranging and involve intelligence gathering and surveillance work. See Status of Policing in India Report 2019: Policy Adequacy and Working Conditions (n 87) 78.

The Status of Policing in India Report 2019: Policy Adequacy and Working Conditions (n 87) 17 highlighted how the police works at 77.4 percent of its sanctioned strength and the vacancies in the senior rank are higher than at the constabulary rank. This problem of vacancy exacerbates another problem of overburdened police force, which is the root cause of physical and mental fatigue in police. The sanctioned police strength is 181 police per lakh persons in 2016 but India had the strength of 137 police. The United Nations recommends having 222 police per lakh persons. See Chaturvedi (n 12) 1.

James B Jacobs and Kimberly Potter, Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics (Oxford University Press 1998) 96.

Bell (n 16) 457.

See Mihir Desai, ‘Red Herring in Police Reforms’ (2009) 44(10) Economic and Political Weekly 8.

See The Constitution of India, 1950, Schedule VII List II Entry 2.

See Government of India, Fifth Report Second Administrative Reforms Commission: Public Order (2007) 27-60; Sections 3, 4 and 43 of The Police Act, 1861.

Prakash Singh v Union of India (2006) 8 SCC 1.

ibid. The Supreme Court directed that the Director General of Police (DGP) should not be chosen at the state’s discretion but should be selected from the three seniors most candidates who have been empaneled for promotion by the Union Public Service Commission. There were many other key directions like separation of investigation police from the law and order police, constitution of State Security commission and Police Establishment Board in every state.

The Status of Policing in India Report 2019: Policy Adequacy and Working Conditions (n 87) further brings to light how states have circumvented the directions given in Prakash Singh . The Supreme Court directed the states to ensure that key police officers are guaranteed a minimum tenure of two years. While the case has affected the percentage of transfers which was 16% in 2016, the number of transfers has still been significantly high in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The Wire provides us with an assessment of the state compliance status and reports that, ‘there has not been “a single case of full compliance” and that the governments have “either blatantly rejected, ignored, or diluted significant features of the directives”.’ Further, only 18 states were to have passed the new Police Act after the 2006 judgment. While the State Security Commission has been constituted in 27 states, conditions and requirements for constitution have been ignored. Additionally, the article notes that, ‘while “all states have constituted Police Establishment Board on paper but only Arunachal Pradesh complies with the directive fully.”’ See GV Bhatnagar, ‘No State Fully Complied With SC Directives on Police Reforms, Finds Study’ ( The Wire , 23 April 2018). https://thewire.in/government/sc-police-reforms-directives . Accessed 20 March 2020.

Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse, and Impunity in the Indian Police (n 7) 8.

Aston Joshua and VN Paranjape, ‘Restructuring the Indian Police System: The Need for Accountability and Efficiency’ (2012) 1(2) Nirma University Law Journal 1, 11.

See Harsh Mander and others, Accountability for Mass Violence: Examining State’s Record (Centre for Equity Studies 2012) 253-317. In discussing the accountability of public officials in relation to communal violence, the Report points to the failure of the police in preventing violence, the bias of the police once the violence unfolds, and the subversion of the proceedings — crediting this to the political atmosphere. It argues that public officials, including politicians and civil servants, more often than not, foster communal violence. In the instance of Bhagalpur 1989, the Bhagalpur Commission of Inquiry accused the administration of suffering from ‘culpable amnesia, deliberate indifference and patent communal bias, incompetence in not anticipating the riot’. The Report also alleges that the legislations are framed in a manner that makes initiating proceedings against public official’s complex. Also see Prakash Singh, ‘Crime, Politics and Governance’ ( India Seminar , June 2001). http://www.india-seminar.com/2001/502/502%20prakash%20singh.htm . Accessed 12 May 2020. In this article, Prakash Singh suggests that the police are used for political purposes. The functions of the police are hardly independent. In referring to the emergency period, he claims that most arrests and releases were made as a result of political consideration to favour the ruling party. According to him, the political leadership is not willing to grant any autonomy to police officials as having them under their administrative wing is a ‘convenient tool to further its partisan objectives .’

See Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities (n 26) 3-5. This Report states that between January 2009 and October 2018, 90 percent of lynching and mob violence were reported after BJP came to power in May 2014, and 66 percent occurred in BJP-run states. Muslims were victims in 62 percent of the cases and Christians in 14 percent. Further, the Report documents the statements of politicians that encourage violence and justify the acts of cow protectors. Some statements are reproduced below,

‘Till cow is not accorded the status of ‘Rashtra Mata’ (Mother of the Nation) I feel the war for gau raksha (cow protection) will not stop even if gau rakshaks (cow protectors) are put into jails or bullets are fired at them.’ – T Raja Singh Lodh, BJP lawmaker, Telangana state, July 2018.

‘Those who are dying without eating beef, can go to Pakistan or Arab countries or any other part of world where it is available.’ – Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, BJP union minister of state for parliamentary affairs, May 2015

‘We won’t remain silent if somebody tries to kill our mother. We are ready to kill and be killed.’ – Sakshi Maharaj, BJP member of parliament, on the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq, October 2015.

Also see Lynching Without End: Fact Finding Investigation into Religiously-Motivated Vigilante Violence in India (n 30) 40. According to this Report, there are no stringent laws against hate speech in India. No hate speech cases have been made out against those instigating violence.

For instance, Yogi Adityanath, the BJP Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in November 2017 said, ‘There is only one way to protect Indian culture: to protect gau (cows), Ganga, and (goddess) Gayatri…Only the community that can protect this heritage will survive. Otherwise there will be a huge crisis of identity, and this crisis of identity will endanger our existence.’ See Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities (n 26) 4.

For some of these debates, see Ahmad (n 52); Vijayta Lalwani, ‘India Doesn’t Need a New Law to Curb Lynchings, Enforcing Existing Laws is Enough, Say Legal Experts’ ( Scroll.in , 22 July 2018). https://scroll.in/article/887295/india-doesnt-need-a-new-law-to-curb-lynchings-enforcing-existing-laws-is-enough-say-legal-experts . Accessed 12 May 2020; The Print Team, ‘Can a New Lynching Law Prevent ‘Mobocracy’ or Does the Political Climate Need to Change?’ ( The Print, 17 July 2018). https://theprint.in/talk-point/can-a-new-lynching-law-prevent-mobocracy-or-does-the-political-climate-need-to-change/83957 . Accessed 12 May 2020.

See e.g. Bindu Doddahatti, ‘Calling it What it is: Why India Desperately Needs a Law on ‘Lynching’’ ( The Leaflet , 1 October 2018). http://theleaflet.in/calling-it-what-it-is-why-india-desperately-needs-a-law-on-lynching . Accessed 12 May 2020; Vakasha Sachdev, ‘Do We Really Need a Specific Law on Mob Lynchings? Yes and No’ ( The Quint , 25 July 2018). https://www.thequint.com/videos/q-rant/mob-lynching-law-supreme-court-needed . Accessed 12 May 2020.

‘The only way to fix the problem of mob justice is to start with police reform,’ – See Swarajya Staff, ‘Answer To Mob Lynching Lies In Independent Police Machinery, Not in New Laws’ ( Swarajya , 17 July 2018). https://swarajyamag.com/politics/answer-to-mob-lynching-lies-in-independent-police-machinery-not-in-new-laws . Accessed 12 May 2020; Sunil Prabhu and Nidhi Sethi, ‘“No Need For Law On Lynching”, Says BJP Despite Supreme Court Advice’ ( NDTV , 19 July 2018). https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/no-need-for-separate-law-on-lynching-bjp-sources-after-supreme-court-remark-1886108 . Accessed 12 May 2020.

‘Bringing out a new law will not suffice as the other problems on the ground remain,’ – See Rebecca Mammen John, ‘Supreme Court Order on Mob Lynching Strong, But New Law Will be Useless Unless Existing Rules are Enforced’ ( Firstpost, 17 July 2018). https://www.firstpost.com/india/supreme-courts-order-on-mob-lynching-is-strong-but-new-law-will-be-useless-as-long-as-existing-rules-arent-implemented-4759151.html . Accessed 12 May 2020; ‘A better-equipped, more intelligent enforcement mechanism working within the existing legislative and judicial system will be far more valuable and effective in addressing concerns of lynching,’ – See Sumathi Chandrashekaran, ‘New Law for Mob Lynching Will Drain Legislative Time, SC Order an Open Invitation to Further Politicise Situation’ ( Firstpost, 17 July 2018). https://www.firstpost.com/india/new-law-for-mob-lynching-will-drain-legislative-time-supreme-courts-order-an-open-invitation-to-further-politicise-situation-4761471.html . Accessed 12 May 2020.

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M Mohsin Alam Bhat, Vidisha Bajaj & Sanjana Arvind Kumar

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M Mohsin Alam Bhat—Associate Professor, Vidisha Bajaj, Sanjana Arvind Kumar—Students.

This article is based on the empirical findings of the legal clinic ‘Hate Crimes and Criminal Justice System’ in 2018-2019. The student participants who conducted and assisted in the research are Shuchi Purohit, Gurbani Walia, Bhavya Shyam, Jagatjeet Singh, Tanessa Puri, Romit Sarkar, Arshiya Qasba Nabi, Monjima Tia Ghosh, Rhea Chokshi Sunit, Noyonika Borah, and Sahaana A Chhabria. The research was ably supported by Vasudha Jain, Raunaq Kwatra, Vedant Singh, Adya Singh, Mantika Kaur Kandhari and Karthik Ranganathan. The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the student participants in the previous iteration of the legal clinic, especially Tanvi Bharti, Rohini Thyagarajan, Rishabh Bajoria, Tejasvini Puri, Rakshita Verma, Manasa Ramakrishna and Tanya Manglik. The authors would like to thank Harsh Mander, Farah Naqvi, Navsharan Singh, Pooja Satyogi, Teesta Setalvad, Mangla Verma, Vipul Kumar, Devika Prasad, Ankur Otta, Fawaz Shaheen, Mohammad Aamir Khan, Atreyee Majumder, Sumeet Mhaskar, Revati Laul, Sajjad Hasan, Talha Abdul Rahman, Mahtab Alam, Niha Masih, Kajori Sen, Suroor Mander, and the participants of the consultation organised by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and JGLS on 27 October 2018 in New Delhi for participating in and supporting the legal clinic. The research would not have been possible without the institutional support of C. Raj Kumar, S.G. Sreejith and the administrative officers at JGLS. The authors would also like to thank Oishik Sircar, Joanna Perry, Vandita Khanna, Ankita Gandhi, and the anonymous peer-reviewer of Jindal Global Law Review (JGLR) for their valuable and perceptive comments.

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Bhat, M.M.A., Bajaj, V. & Kumar, S.A. The crime vanishes: Mob lynching, hate crime, and police discretion in India. Jindal Global Law Review 11 , 33–59 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-020-00115-4

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mob lynching in India are manufactured communal violence

Mob lynching is on increase in India after the right wing nationalist party - the BJP formed government. They are manufactured through use of social media and rumours to polarize the society along religious lines and stigmatize minorities. They are a threat to democracy and rule of law.

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India is the land of Tulsidas, Kabirdas, Buddha, Vivekananda, Dayananda, Tagore, Gandhi and many others who talked about tolerance, harmony, fraternity, liberty, equality and justice across the border. Therefore Indian civilisation is known for this fundamental principle. This is the only principles that have safeguarded the downtrodden and minority section of the society leading to establish the unity and integrity of the nation. But incidents like Dadri's mob lynching and Tabrez in Jharkhand have put a stain on the social texture of India. This incident of mob lynching has provoked intolerance and narrow minded people. In the name of cow protection people are killing to one another in that situation it is impossible to keep the fundamental principles like liberty, equality, freedom etc. intact. In the age of reason where people are supposed to be rational, it seems people are still more orthodox as far as religion is concerned. This paper is an attempt to investigate violent incidents of mob lynching in India. The paper focuses on the causes of mob lynching and the need for stringent laws that could bring the situation under control.

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In this research paper, I would be focusing on the current legal provisions regarding mob violence, the problems with these provisions and need for special laws dealing with such violence with the help of doctrinal research. I would also study the situation on other countries where such violence is prevalent and look at the methods adopted by them to curb such violence. I would also point out the recommendations made by the Supreme Court as well as the bills introduced by the Members of Parliament to curb such violence.

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The cases of mob lynching against the vulnerable groups are the matter of grave concern in contemporary Indian Society which is the worst form of crime against humanity. Today, people belong to vulnerable groups such as minorities and Dalits are seriously attacked and assaulted to death by a mob of people of a particular community. These cases of mob lynching definitely affect the way of life and sense of well-being of minorities and Dalits to a large extent causing a fracture in their social and personal status in society which they have got as a human being. The objectives of the study are to understand the nature of mob lynching in the socio-cultural context of India and to examine the linkage between social media and mob lynching. The present study employs content analysis for the study of mob lynching. The data have been collected from lynching affected regions of the country through various Newspapers (Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express and The Times of India etc., Delhi Edition) and monthly magazines (India Today and Economic Political Weekly etc.). The cases of mob lynching have been collected from March, 2013 to September, 2019. The study has found that the cases of lynching are committed against minorities and Dalits due to suspicion of beef consuming, cow slaughtering, skinning of dead cows child lifting, and theft. The study also indicates that most of cases of mob lynching are committed due to fake news, rumors and hate speeches which are circulated on social media platforms.

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Mob Lynching is a pathway to glorify a religion or a class of people by oppressing and taking the laws into one's own hands. It involves taking one's life by attacking the person in groups. It is predominantly found in the northern part of the country and has its roots in USA. The rise in the phenomena of mob lynching India is as alarming as helplessness in terms of lack of availability of laws in the country. This paper focuses on the occurrences of cases of mob lynching in countries like the United States and India and to draw upon the similarities in the incidents across the two jurisdictions. Also, the paper focuses on the present laws in India and find solutions to counter the ongoing surge in the mob lynching cases.

The researcher has attempted to explain the meaning of Mob Lynching with definitions. The researcher has stated the history of lynching mentioning few of the cases in the past. The researcher has mentioned the origin, etymology and various incidents of mob violence in present times and compared them giving clarity on the mentality of the mob and the similarities between the incidents of the past and present. The researcher has stated various Bills and Acts which were presented before the Senate in the USA. The researcher has also presented the Manipur Anti-Lynching Ordinance and explained its provisions. The researcher has presented the draft of the Protection from Mob Lynching Act, 2017 popularly known as ‘Manav Suraksha Kanoon (MaSuKa)’ and given a brief analysis of the draft. The researcher has also attempted to explain the mentality of the mob which performs the lynching.

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Grave peril of digital conspiracy theories

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Rick Bowmer / Associated Press File

Rays of sunlight pierce through the clouds on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, above homes burned by wildfires in Lahaina, Hawai‘i. Days after Maui’s wildfires killed scores of people and destroyed 2,000 homes, a shocking claim spread with alarming speed on YouTube and TikTok: The blaze was set deliberately, using futuristic energy weapons developed by the U.S. military.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Days after Maui’s wildfires killed scores of people and destroyed thousands of homes in August 2023, a shocking claim spread with alarming speed on YouTube and TikTok: The blaze on the Hawaiian island was set deliberately, using futuristic energy weapons developed by the U.S. military.

Claims of “evidence” soon emerged: video footage on TikTok showing a beam of blinding white light, too straight to be lightning, zapping a residential neighborhood and sending flames and smoke into the sky. The video was shared many millions of times, amplified by neo-Nazis, anti-government radicals and supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, and presented as proof that America’s leaders had turned on the country’s citizens.

“What if Maui was just a practice run?” one woman asked on TikTok. “So that the government can use a direct energy weapon on us?”

The TikTok clip had nothing to do with the Maui fires. It was actually video of an electrical transformer explosion in Chile earlier in the year. But that didn’t stop a TikTok user with a habit of posting conspiracy videos from using the clip to sow more fear and doubt. It was just one of several similar videos and images doctored and passed off as proof that the wildfires were no accident.

Conspiracy theories have a long history in America, but now they can be fanned around the globe in seconds, amplified by social media, further eroding truth with a newfound destructive force.

With the United States and many other nations facing big elections in 2024, the perils of rapidly spreading disinformation, using ever more sophisticated technology, such as artificial intelligence, now also threaten democracy itself — both by fueling extremist groups and by encouraging distrust.

“I think the post-truth world may be a lot closer than we’d like to believe,” said A.J. Nash, vice president for intelligence at ZeroFox, a cybersecurity firm that tracks disinformation. “What happens when no one believes anything anymore?”

Extremists and authoritarians deploy disinformation as potent weapons used to recruit new followers and expand their reach, using fake video and photos to fool their followers.

And even when they fail to convince people, the conspiracy theories embraced by these groups contribute to mounting distrust of authorities and democratic institutions, causing people to reject reliable sources of information while encouraging division and suspicion.

Melissa Sell, a 33-year-old Pennsylvania resident, is among those who has lost faith in the facts.

“If it’s a big news story on the TV, the majority of the time it’s to distract us from something else. Every time you turn around, there’s another news story with another agenda distracting all of us,” she said. Sell thinks the Maui wildfires may have been intentionally set, perhaps to distract the public, perhaps to test a new weapon.

“Because the government has been caught in lies before, how do you know?” she said.

Absent meaningful federal regulations governing social media platforms, it’s largely left to Big Tech companies to police their own sites, leading to confusing, inconsistent rules and enforcement.

Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, says it makes an effort to remove extremist content. Platforms, such as X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Telegram and far-right sites like Gab, allow it to flourish.

Federal election officials and some lawmakers have suggested regulations governing AI, including rules that would require political campaigns to label AI-generated images used in its ads. But those proposals wouldn’t affect the ability of extremist groups or foreign governments to use AI to mislead Americans.

Misinformation

Meanwhile, U.S.-based tech platforms have rolled back their efforts to root out misinformation and hate speech, following the lead of Elon Musk, who fired most of the content moderators when he purchased X.

“There’s been a big step backward,” said Evan Hansen, the former editor of Wired.com, who was Twitter’s director of curation before leaving when Musk purchased the platform. “It’s gotten to be a very difficult job for the casual observer to figure out: What do I believe here?”

Hansen said a combination of government regulations, voluntary action by tech titans and public awareness will be needed to combat the coming wave of synthetic media. He noted the Israel-Hamas war has already seen a deluge of fake and altered photos and video. Elections in the U.S. and around the world this year will create similar opportunities for digital mischief.

The disinformation spread by extremist groups and even politicians like former President Donald Trump can create the conditions for violence, by demonizing the other side, targeting democratic institutions and convincing their supporters that they’re in an existential struggle against those who don’t share their beliefs.

Trump has spread lies about elections, voting and his opponents for years. Building on his specious claims of a deep state that controls the federal government, he has echoed QAnon and other conspiracy theories and encouraged his followers to see their government as an enemy.

He even suggested that now-retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, whom Trump himself nominated to be the top U.S. military officer during his administration, was a traitor and deserved execution. Milley said he has had to take security precautions to protect his family.

The list of incidents blamed on extremists motivated by conspiracy theories is growing. The Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, attacks on vaccine clinics, anti-immigrant fervor in Spain; and anti-Muslim hate in India: All were carried out by people who believed conspiracy theories about their opponents and who decided violence was an appropriate response.

Polls and research surveys on conspiracy theories show about half of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory, and those views seldom lead to violence or extremism. But for some, these beliefs can lead to social isolation and radicalization, interfering with their relationships, career and finances. For an even smaller subset, they can lead to violence.

The credible data that exists on crimes motivated by conspiracy theories shows a disturbing increase. In 2019, researchers at the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism identified six violent attacks in which perpetrators said their actions were prompted by a conspiracy theory. In 2020, the year of the most recent survey, there were 116.

Laws designed to rein in the power of social media and artificial intelligence to spread disinformation aren’t likely to pass before the 2024 election, and even if they are, enforcement will be a challenge, according to AI expert Vince Lynch, CEO of the tech company IV.AI.

“This is happening now, and it’s one of the reasons why our society seems so fragmented,” Lynch said. “Hopefully there may be AI regulation someday, but we are already through the looking glass. I do think it’s already too late.”

To believers, the facts don’t matter.

“You can create the universe you want,” said Danielle Citron, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law who studies online harassment and extremism. “If the truth doesn’t matter, and there is no accountability for these false beliefs, then people will start to act on them.”

Sell, the conspiracy theorist from Pennsylvania, said she began to lose trust in the government and the media shortly after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 students and six educators dead. Sell thought the shooter looked too small and weak to carry out such a bloody act, and the gut-wrenching interviews with stricken loved ones seemed too perfect, almost practiced.

“It seemed scripted,” she said. “The pieces did not fit.”

That idea — that the victims of the rampage were actors hired as part of a plot to push gun control laws — was notably spread by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The families of Sandy Hook victims sued, and the Infowars host was later ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages.

Claims that America’s elected leaders and media cannot be trusted feature heavily in many conspiracy theories with ties to extremism.

In 2018, a committed conspiracy theorist from Florida mailed pipe bombs to CNN, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and several other top Democrats; the man’s social media feed was littered with posts about child sacrifice and chemtrails — the debunked claim that airplane vapor clouds contain chemicals or biological agents being used to control the population.

In another act of violence tied to QAnon, a California man was charged with using a speargun to kill his two children in 2021. He told an FBI agent that he had been enlightened by QAnon conspiracy theories and had become convinced that his wife “possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children.”

In 2022, a Colorado woman was found guilty of attempting to kidnap her son from foster care after her daughter said she began associating with QAnon supporters. Other adherents have been accused of environmental vandalism, firing paintballs at military reservists, abducting a child in France and even killing a New York City mob boss.

The coronavirus pandemic, with its attendant social isolation, created ideal conditions for new conspiracy theories as the virus spread fear and uncertainty around the globe. Vaccine clinics were attacked, doctors and nurses threatened. 5G communication towers were vandalized and burned as a wild theory spread claiming they were being used to activate microchips hidden in the vaccine.

Fears about vaccines led one Wisconsin pharmacist to destroy a batch of the highly sought after immunizations, while bogus claims about supposed COVID-19 treatments and cures led to hospitalizations and death.

Capitol riot

Few recent events, however, display the power of conspiracy theories like the Jan. 6 insurrection, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, vandalized the offices of Congress and fought with police in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. About 900 have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials. Over 750 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving some term of imprisonment, according to data compiled by The Associated Press. Many of those charged said they had bought into Trump’s conspiracy theories about a stolen election.

“We, meaning Trump supporters, were lied to,” wrote Jan. 6 defendant Robert Palmer in a letter to a judge, who later sentenced him to more than five years for attacking police. “They kept spitting out the false narrative about a stolen election and how it was ‘our duty’ to stand up to tyranny.”

Many conspiracy theorists reject any link between their beliefs and violence, saying they’re being blamed for the actions of a tiny few. Others insist these incidents never occurred, and that events like the Jan. 6 attack were actually false-flag events concocted by the government and media.

“Lies, lies lies: They’re lying to you over and over and over again,” said Steve Girard, a Pennsylvania man who has protested the incarceration of Jan. 6 defendants. He spoke to the AP while waving a large American flag on a busy street in Washington.

While they may have taken on a bigger role in our politics, surveys show that belief in conspiracy theories hasn’t changed much over the years, according to Joe Uscinski, a University of Miami professor and an expert on the history of conspiracy theories. He said he believes that while the internet plays a role in spreading conspiracy theories, most of the blame lies with the politicians who exploit believers.

“Who was the bigger spreader of COVID misinformation: some guy with four followers on Twitter or the president of the United States? The problem is our politicians,” Uscinski said.

“Jan. 6 happened, and people said: ‘Oh, this is Facebook’s fault.’ No, the president of the United States told his followers to be at this place, at this time and to fight like hell.”

Governments in Russia, China, Iran and elsewhere have also pushed extremist content on social media as part of their efforts to destabilize Western democracy. Russia has amplified numerous anti-U.S. conspiracy theories, including ones claiming the U.S. runs secret germ warfare labs and created HIV as a bioweapon, as well as conspiracy theories accusing Ukraine of being a Nazi state.

China has helped spread claims that the U.S. created COVID-19 as a bioweapon.

Tom Fishman, the CEO at the nonprofit Starts With Us, said that Americans can take steps to defend the social fabric by turning off their computer and meeting the people they disagree with. He said Americans must remember what ties them together.

“We can look at the window and see foreshadowing of what could happen if we don’t: threats to a functioning democracy, threats of violence against elected leaders,” he said. “We have a civic duty to get this right.”

Bravo, Mr. Klepper, for this summary of the dangers of conspiracy theories, especially those created and promoted by our former president! I was shocked during the pandemic when I witnessed so many Kauai folk falling down the rabbit hole of QAnon garbage. The fact that Trump has a shot at being reelected is proof of how easy it is to fall into the deep mire of cult and disinformation. Just keep believing Fox “News” and listening to Alex Jones, Steve Banon, and the rest of the right-wing ecosystem (who are all knowingly enriching themselves by outraging you with their falsehoods), and watch our country and democracy fall apart at the seams.

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