Social media frenzy is at its height. We cannot really live without being glued to our phones and laptop screens. And with everyone keeping their followers and friends updated with thousands of posts, social media users are gradually finding out that their lives are not in their control anymore. In other words, they are becoming more prone to the negative ‘reactions’ to their posts and are being severely affected by them.
Recently, Priyanka Chopra went to Bangladesh as an UNICEF Ambassador to visit the Rohingya camps. Back home, many of her compatriots saw it as an act of disregard and apathy towards the burning issues in India. In order to justify their claims, many trolls on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram chose to show their ‘dissent‘ with the most unimaginable choice of words and abuses. They claimed that she has ‘deliberately’ sought to take up the cause of the Rohingyas instead of the Kashmiri pandits – and therefore, she has committed a grave sin, which is almost equivalent to being ‘anti-national’.
This issue is nothing new. In the past too, she has been trolled in a similar fashion over various issues – ranging from her fashion choices to the character she plays in the American series, “Quantico“. And she is not alone! Many celebrities have also faced harsh scrutiny on their social media pages before, and continue to do so today.
But what is more alarming and scary is that these trolls do not stop at just targeting public figures. Even common people like you and me are equally likely to face cyber-bullying from such individuals who hide behind their social media profiles. Often, they think that they own the world (which makes them delusional) and that they have a right to have it their own way. It is an undeniable fact that everyone is entitled to have their own opinions, agreements and disagreements. Yet many of these trolls seem to have taken it a step further, as they indulge in bullying their fellow netizens. These include issuing offensive comments, hate speech, death or rape threats etc. In this way, our lives are being con-‘trolled’ as we live in fear of them.
But, cyber-bullying is a crime. And some of the features provided by the social media platforms seem to help in the reporting of such instances of bullying. Sadly, they aren’t of much use as the community guidelines never consider these acts seriously, often brushing them off as ‘misconceptions’.
Furthermore, many people still do not prefer to go and register a complaint with the Cyber Crime Branch of the police. Even if they do, it often turns out to be be a painstaking process. Most of them hardly have any trained tech personnel in service, who can utilise the resources to tackle such crimes. This is the sad reality.
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