“Social media trolling is giving nightmares to common people and famous ones with technological advancements.”
- A Chennai techie took her life after being unable to cope with the online trolling for not taking care of her child.
- A social media influencer from Ujjain ended his life allegedly because of online trolling.
- G. Geetanjali took the extreme step of taking her life after being trolled by political activists because she had praised the then YSRCP government, the welfare scheme of which she was a beneficiary.
- Sandalwood actor Darshan Thoogudeepa was arrested on the charge of brutally murdering one of his fans just after the later trolled his current girlfriend on Darshan’s social media post.
- People who raise their voices on social media issues invite cruel trolling from those who are against the idea.
- When players of any sport perform poorly, they face severe trolling on social media.
- Distorted pictures of many innocent people, especially women, keep circulating on various social media platforms, and when the victims come to know about it, it is too late to deal with the irreparable mental and social damage caused.
- When players fail to win or achieve the desired goal, they feel the heat on social media. Sometimes fans troll their idols, but their family members also become victims of unnecessary social media trolling.
- Film stars are equally on the radar of online trollers.
- Online trolls leave no stone unturned to target even small children. Women and children are easy targets of unethical trolling, and it does not matter whether you know the troll personally.
- Politics is another field where unethical trolling can make or break the entire career of a political leader.
Social media platforms: A place of inspiration or trash?
The faster our transition into the digital millennium, the quicker we move away from humanity, co-existence, mutual respect, respect for differences and indifferences, morality, and all the flairs important in our journey as human beings. No one had imagined this until we realized being victims of our inventions.
There are serious concerns regarding cyberbullying, cyberstalking, cyber-frauds, cyber extortion, phishing and scams, cyber kidnapping, wrongful virtual impersonation of the prey, cyber espionage, cyber violence against women and children, cyber spoofing, and many more cyber-related issues.
The world that was made a human-friendly habitat after the synergistic efforts of people living on this planet, irrespective of their differences, was never devoid of crime-related issues.
The greater the civilization, the more serious the crimes.
Tolerance is not a weakness, but who can convince?
The one who commits the crime is wrong, and the one who suffers the crime is equally wrong.
However, while dealing with online trolling, we don’t know the real face behind the veiled or proxy account.
The culprits do not spare the women and teens (even kids). These are soft targets of the trollers, pedophiles, and perverts.
Recently, the Ghaziabad (UP) police arrested a NIFT Delhi graduate woman on the charge of making provoking child sextortion videos on her YouTube channel. The woman used a proxy name for her YouTube account and got arrested when a social worker complained about the viral video depicting and inciting child abuse and sexual exploitation.
The question remains here after she secured bail within 24 hours of her arrest.
How can a cyber criminal use the loopholes of the still-in-process cyber laws to make lewd comments, troll, and stalk innocent people, make indecent videos without their consent, and, when caught, easily get bail?
Beware of the devils of social media.
The inventors of modern information technology weren’t aware of the dangers of social media platforms.
There are more positive things to tell about social media, though we are no strangers to unsocial elements in society.
When laborers were trapped in a Himalayan tunnel in Uttarakhand in November 2023, it was social media platforms through which the rat miners living in Delhi came to know about the incident and they went to the site on their own to help rescue the laborers, while the entire country was praying for the laborers’ successful rescue.
When a movie based on our revered Maryada Purushottam Ram was released in theaters, it was taken off within a couple of days because of social media trolling of its cheap dialogues and irrelevant and false narratives.
We- The real face of online offender
We consistently encounter situations where social media platforms are not the villains themselves.
We are the ones who misuse the facility.
We are the ones who avoid responsibility towards the community.
We are the ones who dodge the idea of respectful and decent online behavior
We are the ones who fake our online identity only to disregard others’ presence and do witch-hunting without giving a second thought about the consequences.
The personal lives of celebrities can also differ from their public appearances, and fans should respect this aspect.
This doesn’t mean to downplay their contributions to the fraternity when they can not perform as perceived.
Women and children are inseparable parts of a civilized society, and subjecting them with cruelty or inhumane stalking will endanger the whole social strata.
The question is, who will take responsibility for our downfall as humans?
Raise your voice against cyber malpractice-
Indecent online conduct matters to everyone, whether they are directly involved or not.
Silently swallowing online atrocities helps no one. Instead, it encourages criminals.
There is no way to avoid cyber activities, so taking care of your online security yourself is the only safe option.
Becoming a victim of cyber criminals may seem easy, but do not delay the problem or hide your plight. It can be more serious than imagined.
Fans of celebrities like Tollywood movie star Darshan Thoogudeepa try to refrain from peeping into their private life.
Fans of players who bombard their idols’ social media accounts with negative, threatening, and even obscene online messages should remember that they are trying their best for the country and should be encouraged to perform better. They need moral support from their fans.
Conclusion-
The message to rein in online wrongdoers should be loud and clear, so much so that no one with bad intentions should dare to step into our online world.
In an era of tremendous reel-making habits and posting online videos, we must keep a keen eye on our safety measures.
We can never know the real facet of the trollers and those who overly criticize us, so the only measure to check the virtual malpractices is to respect ourselves, our existence, and the ecosystem, without enhancing the problems that take a toll on our mental, and physical health.
