Online hatred for a drop

THE online vilification of young pace bowler Arshdeep Singh following a dropped catch in the Asia Cup match against Pakistan on Sunday night in Dubai underscores a sad fact: while the players of the two teams try to raise their games in such high-pressure matches, the so-called fans tend to touch new depths of vileness and cruelty. The episode also has shades of what’s popularly termed 5th Generation warfare — using misinformation, half-truths and complete lies to cause discord and conflict in a region or a country. Soon after Arshdeep dropped a simple catch at a crucial moment in the match, a few posts by Pakistani Twitter users started terming him a ‘Khalistani’ and an ally of their team. It began as a trickle but soon enough, it seemed to have become a well-organised torrent.

An analysis of the Twitter trends around Arshdeep shows that immediately after the dropped catch, the term ‘Khalistani’ generated the greatest interest in Pakistan, followed by India, the UAE, Qatar and Canada. The Wikipedia entry for the Punjab paceman was also edited, and ‘India’ was substituted with ‘Khalistan’ all through the page, and army designations were added to his name. Damningly, the IP address of the person who made the changes was traced to Pakistan. Clearly, the plan was to cause a rift between different communities in India. And, it seems that some bigots this side of the border amplified the chatter around Arshdeep. The Pakistani establishment, a self-avowed enemy of India, will do its utmost to cause trouble in our country; the sad part is that bigots in India magnified the narrative.

It’s heartening to note that the young Arshdeep has received overwhelming support of fans, cricketers, activists, politicians and the entertainment industry. He himself has brushed aside the trolls, saying: ‘I am laughing at all these tweets and messages. I am only going to take positives from it. This incident has only given me more confidence.’ The Indian Government has summoned Wikipedia executives following the incident. Online social media platforms, on their part, must create a foolproof mechanism to weed out lies and propaganda, and also hold users accountable for the lies, hate or libel they spew at people.  

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