Social media: Not a tool for seeking revenge

Social media should not become a megaphone for a lynch mob mentality or breach of privacy. There are better ways to let someone know you do not agree with them

There is a notion of privacy in one’s personal life. There is equally a notion of privacy in public place. When a media (photo/video) is made or passed on without the subject’s consent, it is unauthorised and an intrusion.

Technology has advanced so much that social etiquette is yet to be formalised around privacy issues. Smartphones have made it easy to take photos and videos and the Internet has added firepower to this menace.

Social media is the new-age online coliseum where public shaming and mob justice have turned into a blood sport. It is a lethal combination. Entrenched medieval mindsets, when superimposed on the power of new age technology, turn it into a lethal, combustible combination.

It is alarming to see the ritual of public shaming and mob justice gaining prevalence in recent years in our society. To err is human. Big corporates make mistakes; brands make blunders, celebrities falter and real people commit mistakes. There are bad days in everyone’s life. We all suffer lapses of judgements in our lives. But is the public mocking the unique solution?

Thanks to the communication revolution, the world has turned into a global village. Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp are the new town squares.

Social media platforms provide instant attention and popularity. The ‘aggrieved’ are increasingly resorting to finding justice and redressal through social media platforms.

We see a full-blown form of this behaviour when aggrieved consumers, as a quick fix, resort to naming and shaming the brands and companies which provided shoddy services or did not live up to their promises. This has become a handy tool for consumers to get their grievances heard, expedited and resolved. The brands are increasingly becoming sensitive to such criticism and do not want to be caught on the wrong foot. To this extent shaming provides some benefits.

However, not all public shaming incidents are equal. If you recall, a recent controversial incident that took place where a celebrity couple took on a Mumbai man and shamed him for allegedly littering on the road, one feels there are better ways to handle the issue.

For a start, it would have made a tonne of difference if the couple stepped out of their own vehicle and cleared the litter and put it in the closest dustbin available. This would have amply demonstrated the power of practicing over preaching.

Instead, what we heard was a stern reprimand of the person allegedly involved in the act, public shaming in the form of making an unwarranted video and then uploading it on their personal social media handle. Who’s to say that self-publicity is obnoxious?

Keeping the technicalities aside at this time, the crux of the issue is: If you are taking photos and videos without a person’s knowledge or consent, you are being a creep and transgressing boundaries of social etiquettes. Mounting on a moral high horse and demonstrating a holier-than-thou attitude and providing a discourse without exhibiting any proof of evidence of one’s own behaviour makes this particular incident much more pretentious and ungratifying.

Through this incident, the celebrity couple also unwittingly demonstrated the power of the gaze. It is about the disparity in the power wielded between the viewer and the viewed. Taking unauthorised photos or videos is the abuse of that vulnerability. Women feel more vulnerable in public places as compared to men. But it is not just limited to women, the attractive scoffing the unattractive, a middle-class person scorning at the dressing sense of the working class. Rich and famous people are touchy at being spotted in public places. The camouflage and oversized dark tinted glasses they wear to fiercely guard their own privacy and personal space are perfectly fine.

But the aforementioned overzealous celebrity couple did not think twice while taking away an individual’s right to privacy by filming him and putting up the video on social media.

Data protection laws abroad clearly confer the right not to have personal data collected, published or otherwise processed without the individual’s consent. The law exempts journalism and art from the strictures. Our country too needs such code of conduct, social etiquettes and protection.

People, and in particular, celebrities, need to be mindful of such social media stunts and misadventures lest it backfires. Public shaming on social media has cost many their reputation, careers and personal well-being. Technology-amplified outrage has wrecked and damaged many people’s lives. Nobody wishes to wake up to an avalanche of abuse from strangers.

If the intent was to raise social awareness around civic issues, then the recent episode involving the celebrity couple was a poor example.

Keeping aside the technicalities, the optics demonstrated the pleasure one derived by roasting somebody on social media from a distance in their own cozy confines of an expensive car.

Obviously, behavioural change does not happen this way. It begins at home. It ends when the rubber meets the road. Irresponsible behaviour does call for educating and sensitising the individual or people involved.

Public shaming and exposing people for relatively minor errors of judgement is not the solution. It will help the cause if we engage in a graceful manner and be able to argue why we think it is wrong. There are better ways to let someone know you do not agree with them. We all let down others sometimes.

Social media should not become a megaphone to ridicule, harass and abuse people. Celebrity activism is welcome but public shaming on social media, mockery and breach of privacy is not an acceptable propriety.

(The writer is a communications and management professional with cross-sectoral experience)