How Instagram's 'Add Yours' Templates Fueled Misinformation About RG Kar Case

A few months ago, an "All eyes on Rafah" Instagram story template took the platform by storm when millions of users shared it as their story to circumvent censorship and restrictions imposed by Meta at the time.

All eyes on #Rafah 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/bg3bAtl3dQ

— The Palestinian (@InsiderWorld_1) May 27, 2024

A few months later, in August, we noticed increased use of the same Instagram feature, but this time it was used for the wrong reasons – for spreading mis- and disinformation.

In the wee hours of 9 August, a 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered while on duty at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Her body was found in the morning in the seminar hall of the pulmonology department where she had allegedly gone to take a quick nap during her 36-hour shift.

Social media users created and shared Instagram templates to further spread mis- and disinformation, conspiracy theories and several other unverified claims about the rape and murder of the young doctor.

We spoke to Prateek Waghre, Executive Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, who stated that it is unsurprising that there is a lot of incomplete information on this subject, and that is why low-quality information is filling the void.

The feature, launched in 2021, was designed for virality. The "All eyes of Rafah" template was shared by over 44 million accounts. The virality that pieces of mis- and disinformation experience is limitless, and as expected, these story templates on the RG Kar case gained substantial virality, with some templates being shared lakhs of times.

Talking about features on social media platforms, Waghre stressed that "virality" is also a feature now and that this story template is now being misused, becoming a means of false or unverified information.

What are Instagram Story Templates?

The platform launched the 'Add Yours' sticker template in 2021 which allowed people participate in a public story thread.

Recently the platform upgraded the feature which enabled the users to add GIFs, text or images on the story that can become a template for responses.

Fake Stories on Instagram Story Templates

CASE 1:

An extremely viral story template which was shared over 6 lakh times (at the time of writing this story) stated that a student named Ankita Bauri of Burdhwan University, West Bengal was allegedly raped and murdered.

The claim further states that this happened recently while she was returning home after participating in a protest held for the victim of the Kolkata rape case.

This claim is false! First of all, we did not find any credible information and news reports about a rape-murder case involving 'Ankita Bauri'.

• We checked the official Facebook account of Purba Bardhaman District Police, which clarified that this viral claim was false.

• The police clearly stated that no such incident of rape and murder of a girl named Ankita Bauri has happened in Bardhaman.

• Through other social media posts, we found out that the victim's name had been changed in the viral claim, and it had no link to the Kolkata case.

• Taking a cue, we performed a relevant keyword search on Google which led us to reports shared by The Telegraph and The Statesman on 17 August.

• The reports stated that the body of a tribal girl student was found in Nandur village who was murdered by having her throat slit (as mentioned in the viral claim).

• However, East Bardhaman police held a news conference to clarify that the victim was not raped.

We also contacted sub-inspector of Bardhaman police station who refuted the viral claims and said that no complaint has been received or registered under for Ankita Bauri.

CASE 2:

A collage of three images showing a man covered in blood and holding a severed head is going viral on templates as well as social media posts which claims that a man chopped off the head of the man who raped his sister in Chennai.  

When writing this story, this particular template was shared on more than eight lakh accounts.

But this isn't true. Here are the facts:

• A simple reverse image search on the image led us to several old articles shared by News18, Times of India, Hindustan Times and The News Minute.

• The photo shows a man who chopped off the head of his friend who spoke poorly about his mother, which led to a clash between the two.

• This incident happened in Mandya district of Karnataka on 29 September 2018 and has nothing to do with Chennai or any rape case.

CASE 3:

Another photo is going viral which claims to show a body of a 14 year old girl wrapped in a white cloth who was raped and murdered by Sanjay in Bihar's Muzzafarpur.

It also claims that her breasts were amputated, and there were "over 50 cuts on her private part".

At the time of writing this story, this particular template was shared on more than more than 59 thousand accounts.

However, this is misleading.

We reached out to a reporter from Bihar, Mahip Raj, who confirmed to us that this image is from Bihar and shows a Dalit teenager who was murdered in a village in the Muzaffarpur district of Bihar on 12 August.

He also sent us bytes of Bihar SSP Rakesh Kumar who clarified that the claims about the minor being gang-raped are false. He added that three people have been arrested by Paru police, and the main accused has been identified as Sanjay Rai.

Some missing context: It is important to note that the main accused Sanjay Roy who is arrested by the Kolkata police for allegedly raping and murdering a trainee doctor is not the same person as the accused Sanjay Rai from Bihar case.

The details mentioned in the viral claim about the assault were also false. According to the Bihar SSP Rakesh Kumar, the victim had three major injuries and not 50 as mentioned in the claim.

CASE 4:

Another viral template claimed that a trending search in porn websites includes the name of the victim involved in the Kolkata rape case.

This template was created by a user who also created several other templates linked to the Kolkata case. A quick glance at the account didn't give any information about the user, apart from the fact that they post poetry on a regular basis. While the user only had 1,600 followers, one of the templates created by them was reshared more than 1,36,000 times when we saw the story on Sunday, 19 August.

But there's a catch!

• We found out that this screenshot is from 15 to 16 August 2024 Google Trends, which exhibits data that people search for on the internet.

• So clearly, the screenshot going viral did not show any surge in the trend related to the Kolkata case on any porn sites.

• We are hiding the name of the victim in the screenshots, but the claim, as well as our follow-up on Google Trends, included 'name of the victim video Kolkata' and 'name rape video'.

It remains unclear if getting many reshares of one's story templates helps in increased engagement or followers for the user.

What Can be Done When Fake News is Shared on 'Stories'?

Waghre states that at every level of a platform's design, they should do more to prevent the misuse of their features, but the onus is also on the users.

He stresses on how important it is to verify information before sharing it. "People obviously want to garner as much engagement as they can on the platform. So, it's not like you should not say anything but when you are communicating, make sure that it is verified or it is less likely to be misused or misinterpreted by others," he adds.

When a piece of mis/disinformation is shared through stories on any social media platform owned by Meta, it disappears after 24 hours giving it a very short shelf life.

A lot of users experience high level of viewership on their stories. With the introduction of features such as 'Add Yours' template, it becomes even easier for users to share content and make it go viral.

Recently, when Bangladesh was witnessing an unrest, a lot of misinformation went viral in the form of posts, reels and also stories. So this pattern of sharing fake news on stories is not new and it also returns with zero consequences to the users sharing it.

A study titled 'The anatomy of ‘fake news’: Studying false messages as digital objects' (2021) also shared that interactive structures and data visualisations on Instagram stories or other social media platforms enable users to engage more deeply with false messages which also increased their reach and impact.

"People will share information that is sensational and that will appeal to their biases so there is a question of till what extent platforms anticipated the misuse (of the feature) and the protections they are putting in place while rolling these features out," Waghre mentions while speaking about how much we can rely on platforms to fix these broader problems which we have in the information ecosystem.

We have also reached out to Meta and Instagram to get clarity on the misuse of this format and the story would be updated as and when we receive a response.