Social Media or Toxic Media?

Just came across reading a post “How Social Media Works”

Me: I prefer mangoes to oranges. Random Person: So, basically what you’re saying is you hate oranges? You also failed to mention pineapples, bananas, and grapefruits. Educate yourself. I’m literally shaking.

And I felt that. Social media can be more dangerous than a bomb in the hands of an insane person.

No society was, is or will be crimeless ever. And to think of a crimeless society is a myth. We, human beings by birth are fighting animals. We must accept the fact that we all are different as persons, in thoughts and perspectives. There are billions of humans on earth and you can spend your whole day reading negative views over social media.

We need to pause and think about what kind of environment are we pushing ourselves to wake up in? It is us who give priority to negative posts over reading something good. And at the end of the day all we do is blame humanity. India recorded 351.4 million social media users as per 2019.

The art of trolling, social media trials, commenting on religious, political, economic and every other issue etc. is a new trend. We tend to force others in believing our own statement. The quality of healthy debating is degrading every day. Social media has become a platform to mock people to proceed with something they cannot do in real world. We tend to criticize government authorities but we ourselves are no different.

Another problematic thing with social media is that we are way too focused on getting likes and followers. We create hype for bloggers and influencers that may provide less productivity rather than following those who help in brushing up skills and are actually productive.

Social media has become so toxic that whatever is seen is commented upon, whether they have knowledge about it or not. We are so much connected with social media that what we blindly tend to believe every word we read which may be untrue and totally injurious. We don’t listen to understand but just to reply. Hence, reply game never ends even in the matters of national security and sovereignty. Too many perspectives result in differences followed by contradictions and arguments, unfortunately turning into hate speech and abuses taking shape of threats which may result into actual violence.

Many would argue that it is our right of freedom to speech and expression and even the Constitution of India protects the same under Article 19 (i) (a) but what we forget about is the reasonable restrictions. There is a problem with expressing over social media. If someone puts a story on social media, it flares up in a jiffy to billion people leading to uninvited chaos in shape of privacy theft, declaration of guilty, emotions ruining logic, violating law and justice and what not. When one decides to comment over something their internal negativity shows up and impacts the environment. Perks of gaining followers with it remain at top.

According to Law ‘an accused is innocent until proven guilty.’ But this law seems missing in courts of the social media. An accused is declared guilty even before FIR is filed and remains criminal even after innocence proved in Court of Law.

Judging is under stress in digital era. Freedom of press is changing paradigm of civil and human rights and current pattern of media trials is an example of it. Before a case is taken up by the court people start discussing on social media what the “outcome” should be which has an influence on Judges, said Justice AK Sikri at First Law Association for Asia and Pacific Conference.

Social media has started to have a prejudice centered impact on trials. To understand in realistic manner the infamous scene of 'Bois Locker Room' can be cited. It was a case where screenshots of 'gang rape discussion' were leaked on social media. Everything started with a Snapchat conversation with one boy suggesting an aggravated sexual assault plan against a girl.

This caught fire on Social Media and people started making remarks against all the men. However, later investigations revealed that the boy in the Snapchat conversation named “Siddharth” was actually a girl who created a fake profile in the boy's name and all it was done to check the reaction of the boy other hand and test his character.

And right after few days of this, one boy committed suicide in apprehension of fake sexual assault allegations. Next day his brother through social media made it clear how his brother received threats after accusation made by the girl and even after trying to make everyone clear that he’s innocent nobody believed him and had to end up with this.

A Facebook post was all it took to undo decades of communal harmony in a small east Indian town.([i]) A teenager’s reckless Facebook post on July 2 offended Muslims and triggered riots in West Bengal’s Basirhat subdivision, and the communal bitterness continues to fester.([ii])

To understand the gravity or plight we must refer to another real story, Actress Eesha Gupta had named and shamed the businessman in a series of tweets and had accused the hotelier of "raping her with his eyes." She had shared his photo on social media and written,

“If a woman like me can feel violated and unsafe in the county, then I don’t know what girls around feel. Even with two securities around I felt getting raped,” #rohitvig you’re a swine. He deserves to rot. Men like Rohit Vig, are the reason women don’t feel safe anywhere. You around me with your eyes and stares were enough. Rohit Vig- the man who thinks staring at a woman all night and making her uncomfortable is ok. He didn’t touch me or say anything. But throughout stare. Not as a fan, not cuss me an actor, but because am a woman. Where are we safe? Is being a woman a curse! It’s not about being a celeb. What a normal girl has to go through? How can a man be above the law? I was having dinner. He came much later n took the table opposite us. Why is it ok for men to think it is okay?

Her tweets have landed her in trouble as the man has taken the legal route to slam the defamation case against Eesha.[iii]

The news of a pregnant elephant that died in Kerala, on 27 May 2020, after she ate an explosive fruit, allegedly left by some locals, drew shock and criticism from people across the country on social media. While the later investigation pointed a different reality from what was spread on social media.

The case of Jasleen Kaur, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member, who had accused a boy named Saravjeet of harassment and molestation in 2015 following a dispute between the two at a traffic signal in Delhi. Kaur had then taken to Facebook to share ‘her side’ of the story, posting Sarvajeet's picture with it, which garnered massive attention including a media trial, during which he was labeled 'Delhi ka Darinda.' After 4 Years of Public Shaming & Struggle, Saravjeet Singh was finally proven ‘Not Guilty’. While speaking to media houses, an apology was sought from Goswami who had called him a 'pervert' on national television, adding that now with the accusations proven false, the journalist should make amends to restore his image.[iv]

In 2014 Delhi Commission of Women released the data that 53% of rape cases reported in the year of 2013-14 false were false. **but we might have rant about it already, held guilty every alleged person on social media.**

Yet another highlighted story is of Rohtak girls wherein two sisters Pooja and Aarti from Kharkhauda, were “allegedly” harassed by two men who were reportedly returning on the same bus after an army recruitment exam. One of the co-passengers had shot a video of the incident which quickly spread over social media and news channels of India.

The girls were nicknamed "brave-hearts", Chief Minister of Haryana announced a bravery reward of Rs. 31,000 to each of the two sisters on Republic Day (2015). A sick old woman had asked these boys to buy her a bus ticket, at the bus stop. The sisters, who were already onboard, started an argument that eventually turned into a heated fight, as the boys asked them to vacate the allotted old woman's seat.

After the incident, the Indian Army sources stated that Kuldeep and Mohit who had passed the physical test, will not be permitted to appear for the written exam.
On 5 December 2014, some passengers of the bus came forward to testify in front of the police about the bus incident (on 28 November). They claimed that the whole quarrel was about the old woman's seat being occupied by the girls, rather than teasing.

Following these turn of events, the girls voluntarily requested for a Polygraph and Psychological Assessment Test (PAT) to prove their version of the incidents were true. However, the results came out 'unsatisfactory' for the girls, while the accused men had passed the tests.

Further, another man reportedly came forward to claim of being victimized by these girls similarly who had accused him of molestation. He eventually had to pay Rs 20,000 to have these charges withdrawn.

Finally, after the testimony of 40 witnesses that favored the accused boys, combined with the results of the Polygraph and PAT, ACJM, Harish Goyal released the three men on 3 March 2017 i.e. after 3 years.[v]

Recently read a tweet criticizing judgment of Hon’ble High Court of Punjab & Haryana gone against them stating “Who make these old people sit? Young people shall take over”, tweeted someone probably having cup of coffee in an A.C. room?

If judgment would have gone in their favor would they have still said the same?

In all of above said cases we connect the dots how social media triggers an issue, how facts are molded and how sooner people react without even proper investigation has been done for it and without thinking the aftermath of it. It starts with giving judgments and ends with suicide, riots, panic, and hatred. It is high time we know the difference between opinion/judgment. Many cases we have witnessed when we outrage to fullest but later turns out to be a different reality. It all impacts the proceedings of the case. And to quote a movie “Section 375”, a perfect example how facts can be misguided, presented as sentiments, emotions trumps Justice. Whatever people have to give remark about? It can leave an impact on inquiry, investigation or trial. Series “The Verdict” is just another example for it. These are just the movies but later we see movies based on real stories?

 Sonakshi Sinha, Aayush Sharma, Saqib Saleem, Shashank Khaitan on quitting their social media

   

Kriti Sanon in June 2020, “Social media is the fakest, most toxic place and if you have not posted RIP or said something publicly, you are considered not to be grieving, when in reality, those are the people grieving for real. It seems social media is the new ‘real world’.. and the real world has become fake,”

Swaksha Sharma, Law student from Himachal Pradesh says, we see so many news related posts on certain meme pages. People read them and repost them because they’re related to some sensitive issues or some kind of natural calamity. They further repost them under good faith to make people aware of it more and more but the fact is many times pictures used by the pages are old and vague (to gain followers). People again don’t bother to verify this kind of news and spread it and hence it is a form of toxicity as it creates unnecessary panic sometimes.

Sukriti Bajaj an MBBS student, belonging to Ludhiana says, Social Media from being a place where you could connect with people, it has spiraled down to a place where people try to bring each other down. Be it be unwanted comments or judgments, bullying, being a part of social causes because its apparently a trend and how else are you going to the validation to stand in the society, not even knowing what newspaper they read at home but openly posting views about what’s going on around them. You name any negative trait and you can find it online.

Mahima Gulati, a Dental student from Punjab says, everyone here has to look cool. And in pursuance of the same if someone gets famous, everyone just start copying him. It is more followers than a real friend’s trend.

Everything boils down to the fact that social media is as risky as fast it is. WhatsApp has been rightly going around with the hashtag, "ForwardMatKar", which is a wise thing to do. Let us control social media and not the other way around. Only we can together make it a platform of more authenticity and less regrets.

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Edited by @ Vasu Gupta

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[i] https://qz.com/india/1030653/west-bengal-violence-how-a-facebook-post-broke-the-decades-long-communal-peace-of-a-west-bengal-town/

[ii] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/basirhat-clashes-minor-whose-fb-post-triggered-bengal-riots-in-jail-against-law/story-ZACNf5GtEpvWOHjwc983pM.html

[iii] https://www.peepingmoon.com/celeb-crime/news/32957/Esha-Gupta-slammed-with-a-defamation-suit-by-Delhi-hotelier-whom-she-had-accused-of-raping-her-with-his-eyes.html

[iv] https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/oct/26/jasleen-kaur-case-sarvjeet-acquitted-after-four-years-netizens-demand-apology-from-kejriwal-arnab-2053322.html

[v] https://thelogicalindian.com/news/rohtak-sisters/