CHANDIGARH: She was given rape and death threats on the social media, trolled on Twitter, and told that they knew where her children studied. Army wife and micro-blogger Ambreen Zaidi was having her tryst with a social media divided on religious lines.
At Military Literature Festival here on Saturday, on the panel with Colonel Ajai Shukla, Suman Sharma, Colonel Avnish Sharma, Gurmehar Kaur, and moderator Major Navdeep Singh, Zaidi said during the session on social media: First three months after my husband and I moved to Delhi from Chhattisgarh, we could not find a house because I have a Muslim surname. I used to take pride in being called a 'faujan' (a woman army officer) and my husband has served the country for 20 years."
A few days after Zaidi shared the experience with her community on Twitter, she was bombarded by trolls. "When they threatened to harm my children, I locked my account for a few months." About the role of social media in military families, Colonel Avneesh said: "The army is an insulated organization with the image of a holy cow but I remember the social media snapshot of an army officer's travelling in a boat with three stars. Social media doesn't spare anyone." Major Navdeep Singh posed a question about the no-go areas for military families who are online. Colonel Ajai Shukla said: "There is a security dimension in our lives, different than civilians. Pressing the geo-tagging button on Facebook image will give away your location to the world. The US army, for example, has a separate social-media policy and a handbook of online rules. It even has its own intranet and immediate blogging system, where soldiers can post anything unusual they come across."
On the idea of grievance redress systems on Twitter and Facebook for the war veterans and widows, fighter pilot Suman Sharma said it would be a "force multiplier" and should not be feared. She quoted examples of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's drawing applause for the efficient use of Twitter to help stranded expatriates. Army Rule 21, which restricts officers from expressing their opinion on a political issue, was also discussed.
At Military Literature Festival here on Saturday, on the panel with Colonel Ajai Shukla, Suman Sharma, Colonel Avnish Sharma, Gurmehar Kaur, and moderator Major Navdeep Singh, Zaidi said during the session on social media: First three months after my husband and I moved to Delhi from Chhattisgarh, we could not find a house because I have a Muslim surname. I used to take pride in being called a 'faujan' (a woman army officer) and my husband has served the country for 20 years."
A few days after Zaidi shared the experience with her community on Twitter, she was bombarded by trolls. "When they threatened to harm my children, I locked my account for a few months." About the role of social media in military families, Colonel Avneesh said: "The army is an insulated organization with the image of a holy cow but I remember the social media snapshot of an army officer's travelling in a boat with three stars. Social media doesn't spare anyone." Major Navdeep Singh posed a question about the no-go areas for military families who are online. Colonel Ajai Shukla said: "There is a security dimension in our lives, different than civilians. Pressing the geo-tagging button on Facebook image will give away your location to the world. The US army, for example, has a separate social-media policy and a handbook of online rules. It even has its own intranet and immediate blogging system, where soldiers can post anything unusual they come across."
On the idea of grievance redress systems on Twitter and Facebook for the war veterans and widows, fighter pilot Suman Sharma said it would be a "force multiplier" and should not be feared. She quoted examples of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's drawing applause for the efficient use of Twitter to help stranded expatriates. Army Rule 21, which restricts officers from expressing their opinion on a political issue, was also discussed.
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