Ask any social media expert in the country and they will tell you that 90% of all social media engagements are negative.
India breeds cynicism, in one form or the other and Social media has been the modern day catalyst, may it be Twitter or Facebook.
Recently, an IBN Live journalist tweeted a image of PM Narendra modi from his personal account. The tweet stated, “Will someone tell what’s Modi ji doing in Saudi? Can’t be what it looks like surely.”
Anybody who read his tweet twice would get to know that he was trying to seek a clarification on the image that was circulating, and not insinuating that Modji was doing something like this:
But such is the state of cynicism on social media that he was counter questioned, accused of photoshopping, and eventually also got his name in an FIR filed by a political party member.
Mahesh Giri, MP from the East Delhi constituency and National Secretary BJP, went a step further and targeted the journalist’s organisation. Arvind Gupta went ahead and filed an FIR.
Raghav Chopra, the Journalist who tweeted the picture, suddenly became a Twitter celebrity with trolls after his life. Along with him, his organisation was also trolled. Ultimately they had to apologise for his tweet.
It was a traumatising experience for the journalist. In this case, the organisation supported him because he was not tweeting from the official media house handle, but his own.
Twitter lynching by the trolls were so severe that #SackRaghavChopra started trending.
But if such social media lynching continues, where an employee’s organisation is attacked, many might not be as lucky as Raghav.
The picture he tweeted was also not a new one, and he definitely didn’t photoshop it. The photo has been circulating on social media since 2015 as a meme. But since a journalist was involved in posting, everyone went beserk.
Many would say that BJP as a party is known for such things. They troll people on social media who don’t align with their thoughts. But BJP is not the only party doing it. Aam Admi Party (AAP) trolls are no less. Even Congress try these tactics to dissuade any kind of negative publicity.
Question any of their leaders, be it Narendra Modi or Arvind Kejriwal, and they will attack you on social media like a pack of hyenas.
Do these so called supporters jump to conclusions without fully understanding situations?
Some media organisations have rules for journalists on how they should conduct themselves on social media. But most media outlets give their journalists a free hand in whatever they want to share their opinion on.
Raghav’s organisation followed the latter policy, and his views on Twitter were of his own and not his organisation’s. Still both were equally blamed. This issue might be a trivial one, but imagine what effect such social media lynching can have on an individual if it was a serious issue?
The fear of the unknown is the worst and threats on social media can turn into reality, surprisingly. We live in times where one has to be careful before they express their thoughts.
Where is the freedom of speech India once enjoyed on the internet?
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