Misinformation has been extensively shared within the violence-hit state of Manipur in north-east India, regardless of makes an attempt by authorities to quash it by limiting web entry.

Warning: This article accommodates particulars some readers might discover distressing

Attacks on girls have been a selected supply of false and deceptive claims, relationship again to the upsurge in violence in Manipur in early May.

The authorities shut down cell web companies as quickly as clashes started on 3 May to cease the unfold of “disinformation and false rumours, through various social media platforms”.

A day later that was prolonged to incorporate all web companies within the state.

But by then a graphic picture of the physique of a girl, wrapped in a plastic bag, incorrectly mentioned to be a Meitei nurse who was raped and murdered by Kuki males, was already circulating.

Not solely had the picture appeared on social media, we have now seen proof of it additionally being shared on WhatsApp within the district of Churachandpur the place clashes broke out on 3 May.

The claims surrounding the picture are false as a result of it not from Manipur in any respect. It is a photograph of Aayushi Chaudhary, a 21-year-old lady who was killed in Delhi in November last year. Similarly, a false declare emerged on 5 May on social media that the our bodies of 37 Meitei girls, who had been raped and killed, and the physique of a seven-year-old Meitei little one, had been on the Shija hospital in Manipur’s capital Imphal, awaiting post-mortems.

On Twitter, various posts repeated this declare, with nearly similar wording. The posts had been shared by newly-created accounts.

The BBC has additionally seen identically-worded textual content messages circulated within the native Manipuri language, as pictured within the instance beneath. We’ve been informed by journalists working in Manipur that, regardless of the cell shutdown, it was nonetheless attainable to speak through textual content message.

The Shija hospital informed the BBC it by no means occurred, and that – as a non-public medical establishment – they aren’t authorised to hold out post-mortems.

There are different examples of false and deceptive content material, together with a highly-graphic video of the assault and killing of a girl on a highway, mentioned to be in Manipur.

In late June, this video started to be shared with the hashtag #Manipur, and obtained hundreds of views – with some claiming it confirmed the killing of a Kuki lady by armed males, presumed to be from the Meitei neighborhood.

It resurfaced every week in the past, with the identical declare, amid declarations that it came about in Manipur.

Once once more the claims are false.

The video will not be from Manipur, and the sufferer will not be a Kuki lady.

It is from neighbouring Myanmar and the incident occurred in June 2022 – properly earlier than the Manipur clashes started – and has been debunked by an Indian fact-checking web site.

We cannot make sure how extensively this video was shared, however it was circulating inside Manipur as a result of the state police warned publicly that motion can be taken towards anybody sharing it.

Misinformation has continued, even after the Manipur violence hit the headlines on 19 July – when the video emerged of the mob assault on two girls from the Kuki neighborhood, from early May.

The following day, claims unfold {that a} Muslim man had been arrested for his alleged involvement – these sharing this included a politician from India’s ruling BJP get together, Tejinder Pall Singh Bagga.

Mr Bagga’s tweet had greater than 1,000,000 views, and hundreds of re-tweets, and referred to the person because the “main accused of [the] Manipur case” – with ‘the Manipur case’ extensively understood to confer with the assault on the 2 girls.

But this was deceptive as, though Manipur police did arrest a Muslim man that day, it was for one thing utterly completely different.

The police have made clear the arrests came about in numerous areas; they didn’t hyperlink the Muslim man with the assault on the ladies.

The information company, ANI, which additionally incorrectly reported the arrest of this man in reference to the mob assault later corrected itself, blaming their mistake on the “erroneous reading of tweets” from the police.

However, Mr Bagga, from the BJP, has to this point neither corrected nor clarified his unique tweet, nor has he responded to questions on it from the BBC.

Additional analysis by Ahmed Nour