The internet is a place which gives the platform for everyone to give their opinion without any censorship. The free and fair platform lets everyone with an internet connection voice their opinion. There is no problem in that, but when everyone starts taking offence to another person’s opinion and tries to pull that person down with slander instead of collective criticism, there starts the problem.
As I had said earlier, trolls look for a reason to target a celebrity or known person and often take out their frustration in life using pure hatred. They don’t need a reason to do it, they will find a reason to spread venom or insult someone.
The latest victim of cyberbullying was Swara Bhasker for her open letter. Some genius circulated misquoted visuals of her to further perpetranger and hatred against her. Everyone has every right to disagree with her open letter, but launching a smear campaign is not justified at all.
I don’t agree with her for taking offence over a stupid Bollywood movie. However, having said that disagreeing with someone and launching hatred troll campaign are different things. When you look at the way they work, they use slander, insults and name calling to get an emotional response from that person. It often leads to serious forms of cyberbullying.
The open letter had paved way for debates on should a filmmaker show fictional historical story being socially responsible? We need to have that conversation. We need to have this kind of conversation in a healthy way, but unfortunately, Swara’s conversation has been reduced to a mere case of targeted harassment.
The cyber trolls are the internet form of high school bullies, I was happy to see that celebrities are not willing to bow down to such bullies. RJ Malishka extended support to Ms.Bhasker, having been a victim of bullying herself.
Let me tell you that everyone expressing an opinion on a popular issue don’t make her an attention seeker.
Cyberbullying is a bigger problem than you think. Watch this video to know more
