Hello,
To talk about The Collective’s latest investigation, our editor Anoop has asked me to write this letter to you. I am Nitin Sethi. And the investigation is by our colleague Angana Chakrabarti. From Manipur. The tragedy closer home that we have lost sight of.
You will remember, on May 3 ethnic conflict erupted between the Kuki and the Meitei communities in the hilly state abutting Myanmar. The State failed. The ethnic clashes turned into a civil war. Armed groups, militiamen, civil and political actors and shadowy actors of many hues took over as the State vapourised. Citizens were left to fend for themselves.
Even after months, life in parts of the State remains embroiled in violence and tens of thousands of people who were displaced continue to live in makeshift shelters as winter sets in to make things worse.
The one thing the State did with alacrity amid the ethnic conflict is to shut down the internet across the state for months. You must have read about how it exacerbated the difficulties people in the hill state are facing.
But, was the internet really shut off for everyone?
No, Angana found out. Powerful actors have been accessing the internet all through these months of armed violence. To run an information campaign on social media, to influence India and the rest of the world’s understanding of the conflict. A narrative battle has been played out on social media platforms amid the conflict. It has had its effect. In how people outside Manipur have understood the conflict and worse, how at times, it has deepened hate against one or both the communities.
Angana’s investigation uncovers how hackers helped circumvent the internet ban and finds indications of coordinated social media campaigns that run parallel to the conflict on ground in Manipur.
She takes help from global tech experts to analyse lakhs of social media messages and hundreds of online handles that have spread information and disinformation during the civil war. The experts dig through the trove of data to sift out how the campaigns were run by actors affiliated with both the communities.
She finds that, at times, lakhs of rupees were being paid for internet access. Angana talks to some of these social media warriors and tries to understand their motivations.
After more than two months of investigation, Angana publishes this story in English with Al Jazeera and with The Collective’s partners in other Indian languages.
You can read it here: In Manipur ethnic conflict, social media warriors fight to win battle of narratives
And, if you wondered why Anoop asked me to write to you this time over...
I have family and loved ones in Manipur. For months I and my family in Manipur have lived a life of fear, strife, sadness, frustration and anger.
Angana’s meticulous investigation struck many chords in my heart and mind. As a journalist and as an individual. The story points to our failure as journalists and citizens to understand Manipur’s conflict better and with that understanding hold the State accountable for its unpardonable failure, which has left a large section of Manipur’s people living a prolonged state of violent anarchy.
The investigation marries deep-dive reportage from the state with a more analytic scrutiny of what the reporter saw.
Angana will continue to report from Manipur. We at The Collective are committed to maintaining our focus on the powerful even in the face of internet-based news cycle’s pressure to move on. Because, we understand that you, our readers, seek a better understanding of what drives India. And how it fails its people.