Indian restaurant told they 'should be bombed' over fake news about serving human meat

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Karri Twist, an Indian food restaurant in London, has been in Shrina Begum's family for over 60 years. But a fake news article published on Channel23news.com, and then distributed on Facebook, may force the family business to close.

The post, which claimed the restaurant had been closed down and the owner arrested after nine human bodies were found being prepared for human consumption, was posted on the prank site on May 11.

Since then, Begum says she has received malicious phone calls and had a drop in business. But she still cannot get the post taken down.

As It Happens host Carol Off  spoke with Begum about her restaurant. Here is part of their conservation.

Facebook doesn't want to know about these fake news stories. They want to propagate it on their website, it would seem to me.-  Shrina Begum

Carol Off: What kind of calls have you been getting at your restaurant?

Shrina Begum: Fairly abusive calls where people have been saying why are we selling human meat, we're disgusting, we should bombed, our restaurant should be bombed, I should be bombed. Just literally hate rhetoric all the way through.

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CO: What did you think was going on when you started getting these odd calls?

SB: People were calling and being fairly incoherent where they were just saying you're disgusting, I hope your restaurant closes down and we couldn't quite gather what was going on. Obviously after a little while we got one person who could coherently string a sentence together and tell us that there had been a 'news article' that our restaurant had been closed down, that nine human bodies had been found being prepared to go into our human food chain and that the owner had been arrested.

CO: And this was on a website called Channel23news.com and it was distributed on Facebook?

SB: Yes, it's a prank website, but when you go into the search bar you put in Indian restaurants you will see Karri Twist, my Indian restaurant, alongside several other Indian restaurants with exactly the same news story. And Channel23news.com is literally for pranks. The person is based in the U.S. and another news organization did get in touch with them but they've done nothing to take this down. 

CO: What's happened to business since this started?

SB: It has just been dreadful. Our business has completely lobbed off. We're at half or less than half our normal trading numbers.

CO: How have you been able to report the incident to Facebook, or to whomever?

SB: Well this is the thing. This is three weeks in and the only way one can actually get in touch with Facebook is if you are ready to report a post. Now these posts are being sent to each other with privacy settings. And I have tried so many ways to figure out how to get in touch with Facebook, and there is literally no way of me reporting this problem to Facebook. Because Facebook doesn't want to know about these fake news stories. They want to propagate it on their website, it would seem to me.  

CO: And this man in Milwaukee. BuzzFeed News reports that since February his company has published 720 fake news stories and he's had 2.5 million shares and reactions on Facebook. So someone is making money from this?

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SB:  Absolutely he's making money from this. And whoever has actually uploaded the story about my restaurant, obviously they will have an IP address. And if companies like Channel23news.com were made to give over those IP addresses, at least law enforcement in different countries could start to unravel the faceless person and someone can be held to account. And in terms of someone like Facebook, if they applied basic filters they would stop these malicious stories from spreading.

CO: So you're saying your restaurant is in dire straits right now — is anyone trying to help you?

SB: Our regular customers are supporting us. We even had our local MP Vicky Foxcroft come in. We didn't even get in touch with her, she just came on her own accord and had a meal and then put it on social media.

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