SOCIAL MEDIA: BANE OR BOON DURING PANDEMIC
The author of this blog is Kavya Sujal Davey, 2nd year LLB student at the Institute of Law, Nirma University
The whole world is fighting with a pandemic that has taken over thousands of lives
around the world. It should be noted that we are not only fighting with a
global pandemic, we are also fighting with hatred, harshness, and inhumanity.
Technology is probably the best thing that humans have developed but as they
say, every coin has two sides. The other side of the coin in this pandemic is,
unfortunately, the social media. It has become easy for anyone to make
us believe in anything by sending us a single post. As stated earlier, the
world is fighting with two pandemics, one is the COVID-19, and another is the
hatred spread by social media. The scientists will probably find a vaccine of
this virus but are we ever going to find a vaccine for hatred or for that matter
inhumanity? It is a debatable topic.
We
all are probably stuck in our own houses. It is a time where people feel
desperate, they are anxious all the time because of the current situation. So,
to curb these feelings they try to connect with other people, virtually. Well,
that's a gift in a pandemic that we can still talk to our loved ones, we can
still see them through video calls
Foolishness
is not just a single threat to this world. It has come to us with several
branches. Foolishness is divided into hatred, biases, and inhumanity. Ignorance
is a bliss, rightly said.
· HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?
Every
day we wake up with the news of the increasing number of cases across the
globe, it is normal to feel anxious about it. At the same time, it is not
normal to perform such actions that are very unreasonable in their way. Just
because the social media flashed your phones with a notification on your
screens, does not mean that you need to be a warrior and do something about it.
There are a few examples of this which I would like to present in front of you:
§ A
man in Delhi was beaten brutally, just because the people of his village
complained to the police that he is conspiring with his people and is engaged
in spreading the virus. This statement was based on rumors that were given in
the form of fake news to these people[1]. Again, social media was
the platform. The man had returned from the conference for Tablighi Jamaat and
so, people assumed that he was the enemy of the nation. Directly-indirectly
social media did play a role in spreading this hatred among other people for
Muslims after the Tablighi Jamaat incident.
§ We
all know that the epicenter of this virus is Wuhan, China. Soon after the
breaking of this virus, a piece of news came that china has done this because
of bioterrorism and china is responsible for all these things. As a group of
literate people, we should not believe it because (a) There is not enough
evidence to prove this. (b) Right now, it doesn't matter, what matters is the
health of the nation. But still, people being people started believing in this
story. They were so blinded by the hatred that they didn't even spare the
north-eastern people. Yes, you heard it right. In Mumbai, a north-eastern girl
was spat by a bike rider. A similar case was seen in March, in Delhi, where a
group f of men called a north-eastern girl corona in public.[2]
·
As stated earlier, people have
started assuming that the cause of COVID-19 in India are Muslims. Since the
Tablighi Jamaat incident, nearly 300k tweets showing #CoronaJihad are
used on twitter. Religion has started playing with the minds of people. Many
people have started sharing videos of these people spitting on vegetables and
spreading the virus, in reality, the videos are fake and are taken before the
outbreak [3]
THE SUBTLE ART OF BLAMING.
All
the nations around the world are blaming each other for this outbreak. US is
blaming China. China is blaming back to the US. Iran is blaming the US. Japan
and Vietnam are blaming China. Thailand believes that this virus comes from white
people because they are very unhygienic, they don't take bath regularly. So,
Thailand is creating racism for white people. Italy believed that African
people are the reason behind this outbreak. Thus, everyone is blaming each
other for this outbreak.
History
repeats itself. This was just a saying back
then but now it seems to be real. During the time of the syphilis which was a
pandemic back in the time. This disease was given 200 different names.
Germans believed it to be a France disease. France believed it to be an Italian
disease. Dutch people believed it to be a German disease. In the 18th
century, the Japanese people called the venereal disease as a disease from
Portuguese. Iran called it as a Turkish disease. Turkey called it as a Russian
disease. Russian called it a Poland disease. [4]After 400 years of this
incident, even today in India and other countries, people are doing the same
thing and today the platform is social media. As we all have easy
access to this social media, the amount of hatred is also high in all the
countries. The result of this is seen in the types of comments and posts that
the people share. Irfan Pathan, a well-known Indian cricketer, tweeted on 5th
April that it was good when all the people came and lighted up diyas, candles,
torch, etc. until they started bursting crackers.[5] Soon the people started to
comment on their opinion on this. They started saying bad things about his
religion and how his religion is responsible for the outbreak of this virus in
India. If the hatred for doctors can spread so easily, think about the hatred
for religion.
WHAT ARE THE AUTHORITIES
DOING?
In
India, both news media and social media are responsible for the spreading of hatred,
among others. News media show the number of cases in India and they highlight
the number of cases of Tablighi jamaat. Well, they can use the defense of
information. But what the authorities are concerned about is the social media
platform. The number of videos and messages on social media regarding the
action of Muslim people were rising so fast that in the end, the authorities
had to break their silence. ALT news has verified certain videos on WhatsApp as
fake videos. A video of Muslim man spitting on the fruits while selling it is
becoming viral on the social media. In its response, the Alt news has said that
the video is of February 2020 when there were no cases reported in Madhya
Pradesh. [6]Also, the video of another
man spitting in the food before delivering it is fake and its origin is not
India. The health ministry of India has also released an advisory for the
social stigma, associated with the pandemic. In which, it is clearly written
that even after taking care if someone gets infected than that person should
not be treated with biases and prejudice. Also, it is a time to support their
families rather than criticizing their religion. The same advisory also shows a
chart of do's and don’ts in which it is written that never reveals the identity
of the person who is infected on any social media platform. Do not label any
community for this outbreak[7]
CONCLUSION
In the end, I would like to say that social media is, of course, a good
platform. But in the present time, when it takes only 10 seconds to make
someone believe about anything, it is not less than a bane. Discrimination and
prejudice have no religion. It has no limits; it is a fire that will spread
faster than anything and destroy the peace of the nation. ‘WE ARE ALL IN THIS
TOGETHER’, rightly said but a question that arises, owing to this situation is ‘ARE
WE?’ Because togetherness means no biasness and no hate for others.
[1] Express Web desk (2020, April 9). Man beaten in Delhi on suspicion
of conspiracy to spread COVID-19. The Indian Express. Retrieved from https://indianexpress.com/article/
[2] PTI (2020, April 6th). Northeastern girl spat on in
Mumbai in an act of racism amid the COVID-19 crisis: NCW. The print.
Retrieved from https://theprint.in/india.
[3] Perrigo, B. (2020, April 3). It was already difficult to be Muslim
in India. Then came the coronavirus. Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/
[4] NELKIN, D. O.
R. O. T. H. Y., & GILMAN, S. A. N. D. E. R. L. (1988). Placing Blame for
Devastating Disease. Social Research, 55(3), 361–378.
Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/40970508
[6] (2020, April 5). Alt News waters down man
spitting on fruits he was selling, claims since the video is from February the
‘mentally unstable’ man is not trying to spread coronavirus. Op India. Retrieved
from https://www.opindia.com/2020/04/alt-news-waters-down-man-spitting-on-fruits-he-was-selling-claims-since-the-video-is-from-february-the-mentally-unstable-man-is-not-trying-to-spread-coronavirus/
[7] in India. Ministry of healthcare and family. (2020). Addressing
social stigma associated with COVID-19. Retrieved from: https://mohfw.gov.in.
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