‘5 lynched in Maharashtra on suspicion of being child-lifters’

‘Woman killed on suspicion of being child-lifter in Ahmedabad’

Headlines such as these, unfortunately, have become more common in the past two months.

Fake messages about child abductors on WhatsApp have helped to trigger mass beatings of more than a dozen people in India.

As these incidents keep occurring, on July 4, the United-States company owned by Facebook, issued a statement saying it is “horrified” by the “terrible acts of violence”, and outlined steps being taken by the company to curb abuse of the messaging platform.

As this issue continues to rage on, here are some of the recent cases where WhatsApp rumours purportedly had a role to play.