Social media platform Instagram is fuelling cow vigilantism in India, a report released on Tuesday by the think tank Center for the Study of Organized Hate said.
The study by the Washington DC-based think tank said that Instagram failed to remove posts that depicted violence by cow vigilantes, and that the vigilantes in many cases used the platform to raise funds.
The report, titled Streaming Violence: How Instagram Fuels Cow Vigilantism in India, noted that there had been an increase in mob lynchings targeting Muslims under the guise of “cow protection” in the country since the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.
The large, predominantly young and male user base of the social media platform had become an “effective recruitment and fundraising tool for these violent groups”, the think tank said in a press release.
The report analysed 1,023 Instagram accounts involved in spreading hate and violence. It found that 30% of these accounts shared videos depicting cow vigilantes engaging in physical violence against people transporting cattle.
“In several of these instances, the people being targeted are Muslims, as evidenced by their responses to being asked their names on camera in the videos posted by the vigilantes,” the think tank said.
For 834 of these accounts, the states or locations from which they were posting were identifiable. At least 793 of these 834 accounts, or 95%, were located in BJP-ruled states. “Haryana ranked number 1 with 320 accounts,” the organisation said.
The report also analysed 121 Instagram reels, or short videos on the platform, showing cow vigilantes engaging in physical violence against persons transporting cattle. “The 121 reels had 8.3 million plays in all,” it said. “As many as nine of the 121 posts [7.4%] had more than 1,00,000 plays each.”
Reels showing vigilante violence, including physical violence and dangerous high-speed truck chases, attracted approximately three times more views on the platform than other reels posted by the same accounts that did not feature such content, the think tank said.
Multiple cow vigilante accounts also posted calls for donations on their Instagram profiles, the report noted.
The think tank added that 167 Instagram posts depicting explicit violence by cow vigilantes were reported by selecting the “showing violence, death, or severe injury” option under the “violence, hate, and exploitation” category on the platform.
Instagram, however, failed to remove any of the posts despite clear violations of its guidelines, resulting in a 100% inaction rate, the report added.
The report urged Meta, Instagram’s parent company, to designate cow vigilante groups as Tier-1 dangerous organisations. “Such classification can offer one way through which vigilante accounts and activity can be curtailed through social media while also ensuring that the ability of these accounts to recruit, influence, and fundraise through Instagram is severely limited,” it said.
Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy designates entities into two tiers, with Tier 1 including hate, criminal and terrorist organisations.
Tier 2 includes “violent non-state actors” that engage in violence against state or military entities in an armed conflict but do not intentionally target civilians.
The study also urged Meta to identify videos of cow vigilantes chasing victims as content that displays vandalism, allowing the videos to be blocked. It also called for disabling the “Send Gift” option for cow vigilante accounts to prevent them from raising funds through Instagram.
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