People on the Internet are often baffled – be it a case of mistaken identities with doppelgangers or confusion about colour of a thing. But things took an ugly turn when a picture of a bus seat went viral after it was mistaken for women wearing burkhas! Yes, no matter how bizarre it sounds, this really happened and many Islamophobics started sharing rude and racist comments. An anti-immigration group in Norway mistook a photograph of empty bus seats for six Muslim women wearing burkhas. The image was posted in a closed Facebook group called the Fedrelandet viktigst, which translates as Fatherland first. The picture stirred a great debate among its members and things were not very pleasant. Many of members claimed they found the scene “frightening”, “tragic” and “scary”, and some even commented the passengers could have “weapons and bombs” under their garments, The Local reported. The image and the conversation went viral after a Facebook user Sindre Beyer posted screenshots of people’s cynical reactions. “What happens when a photo of some empty bus seats is posted to a disgusting Facebook group and nearly everyone thinks they see a bunch of burkas?” he wrote. The group was later lambasted for the mistake and people slammed the person who shared the image. But the man who shared the image, captioned it “What do people think of this?” and said it was just “a little practical joke” to see how people would react to what was actually a photograph of a bus. Reaching out to the Al Jazeera, the man, Johan Slattavik, said in a statement, “I was bored one night so I thought about doing a little practical joke," he said. "As a journalist myself, I am fascinated by social mechanisms such as group polarisation, and how people's perceptions of an impression are influenced by how others around them react. So I laid out the photo to see what happened. I ended up having a good laugh." His response further has irked people on social media. “I’m shocked by how much hate and fake news is spread there. The hatred that was displayed toward some empty bus seats really shows how much prejudices trump wisdom,” Beyer told Nettavisen. “That’s why I shared the post so that more people can see what is happening in the dark corners of the web,” he added sharing why he decided to share the conversations.
