The technological changes have brought numerous positive impacts on our lives, if we look at it, we will find out how social media has changed our lives in the last decade. It enables us to contact our friends and family members, and find any information or news immediately.
But at the same time, social media is also being misused, to mislead people and run anti-national and anti-religious agendas. You will be surprised to know that the Hindus are the biggest online misuse and trolling target. There is a certain section that systematically targets Hindus and intimidates and threatens the innocents.
There is a barrage of social media soldiers, and numerous hostile social media accounts, which left no opportunity to exploit every opportunity to foment disharmony and promote fake narratives against Hindus. The Indian Government has taken some steps against such campaigns, but those are inefficient.
Contrived Identities help them to carry out attacks
Hindus are being subjected to not only personal but misogynistic treatment online, which often goes unnoticed because of the power of anonymity that the Internet and social media platforms offer to the culprits, who conveniently hide behind fake or contrived identities to perpetuate their perversity.
There are many pages on Facebook with a sizeable following that spread nefarious propaganda against Hindus and even their gods. The images shared by these pages are mostly explicit, and show Hindu women with identifiable markers such as sindoor, bangles, and bindi that differentiate Hindu women from others. The posts uploaded on these pages exhort followers to target and sexualize Hindu women.
How Islamists are attacking Nupur Sharma
On May 27, BJP’s spokesperson Nupur Sharma participated in a debate on Gyanvapi Mosque on Times Now. She stated some facts as per the Islamic texts that irked the Muslims. The social media abuser such as Alt News cofounder Mohammed Zubair took her video out of context, and shared it with his Twitter followers, declaring Nupur a rabid communal hatemonger and someone who can incite riots.
This provoked an entire online mob against Nupur and accused her of insulting Prophet Muhammad. Many radical Islamists issue death and rape threats to her and her family. After this intense provocation, Nupur has received multiple bounties on her head not only in India but also in Pakistan. Even the recent violence in Kanpur was orchestrated by provoking the radical Islamists.
The killing of Kishan Bharwad over social media post
A few months back, a 30-year-old Hindu man, Kishan Bharwad was murdered by radical Islamists over a social media post that they believed was against Islam. Kishan had posted a video on social media in which the Hindu deity Krishna was depicted as ‘Superior’ to Islamic Prophet Muhammad and Jesus.
Shortly after this social media post, there was outrage by some members of the Muslim community, and an FIR was filed against him under the Blasphemy Law 8 days before the murder. He was made to apologize, after which he was released by the police.
Modus Operandi of this radical gang
This social media gang operates in a nefarious way, it prowls for accounts that speak against their religion and keep sending threatening messages in their direct message, and asks them to mend their way. This syndicate of radicals has thousands of active members who barge into the DMs of assertive Hindus and employs every trick, starting from gaslighting, deceit and ultimately threatening Hindus against taking a stand for their religion.
If an individual is ready to accept their demands, then they leave them then and there. Otherwise, they share an individual’s profile in the syndicate, send it to different groups, and unleash a barrage of attacks against them. They will find more details and family information about the target who is online available and then unleash a coordinated attack to malign their victim.
This syndicate is well supported by Pakistan’s ISI and ISPR, which have adopted an aggressive stance in recent years. Its information warfare network started using hashtag campaigns, press conferences with appealing graphics, and engaging non-Pakistani foreign faces as influencers to target India.
Some of these individuals are from countries like Australia and the United States. Similar campaigns are being carried out in countries like the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Maldives, and Bangladesh to fuel anti-India sentiments. Turkey is being used as a new operating hub for information warfare.
