The “Assam Rape Festival” article from the National Report--which describes an “annual rape festival of Assam” that lasts a week--is fake, but India investigators are investigating it as a “cybercrime.”
The article, which quotes as false official as saying the festival “is a long time tradition in Assam dating back thousands of years,” has been “liked” and shared on Facebook nearly 1 million times since it was published early this month.
It has seen heavy social media play, with many people expressing outrage over its content.
However, the National Report is a satire news website that publishes only fake stories. It’s similar to the Onion, but doesn’t have the name recognition and focuses on more political subject.
The site’s old disclaimer reads: “National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental.” It doesn’t appear on the website and can be accessed via Archive.org.
It has articles including “God Smites Australia With Plague of Spiders” and “MO Woman Possessed by Demon after Signing Up for ObamaCare.”
But officials in India have said the content of the article has gone too far.
D. Upadhya, the head of Assam’s Crime Investigation Department, is describing the article as a “cybercrime.”
“We are not sure where the cybercrime originated as yet... it takes time to pinpoint the exact place of origin of such crimes. We have written mails to the administrator of a Ugandan website, which has circulated the link to the defamatory article. We have sought their cooperation in our investigation,” he told the Times of India.
The agency has said that the National Report article is possibly an act of defamation and a conspiracy against the state of Assam, located in northern India.
Senior advocate Bijon Mahajan told the Times: “This is unfortunate and Assam Police should act fast to nab the culprits.” And Former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta added: “This looks like the handiwork of an anti-Assam group. The state government should register a protest immediately and not be a mute spectator to the development.”
On the National Report’s Facebook page, the admin of the site responds to a commenter that “you’re not alone on that one … its the ppl who don’t get it that are such a joy to [mess] with. TY.”
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