Smriti Singh, the widow of Kirti Chakra awardee Captain Anshuman Singh has been in the news recently and the talk followed by this news is obnoxious but we cannot turn our back on this issue and hence we are back with a serious message to the government of India.
What is this about?
The article shared by NDTV will help you understand the context in detail but to summarize, Captain Singh was appointed as a Medical Officer. On July 19, 2023, a short circuit led to a fire in an Indian Army ammunition dump at his camp. Captain Singh saw a hut engulfed in flames and immediately acted to save those trapped inside but unfortunately could not save himself. For his valour, he was awarded post-humously with India’s second most prestigious award – Kirti Chakra by President Draupadi Murmu. ScoopDogDaily, with all our team, shares condolences to the family but feels proud to have him another feather in the heroic hat of Mother India.
The aftermath of the honour ceremony
After the event, some pictures and a video of Smriti Singh expressing herself about how it was a moment of grief for all of them surfaced online. While many others paid tribute to the departed and supported the mourning family, a few users have shown utter disrespect for the sacrifice of the personnel by making obscene and lewd comments under the picture/video clip of Mrs. Smriti Singh. One amongst these is a resident of Delhi – Ahmad K. who has left us all in fumes with remarks that we cannot share here.
This has started a row, since things got heated up after NCW demanded action on such lewd actions and the talk of the town has been about such fanatics acting their worst and embarrassing the whole nation at once. There will be always a handful of anti-social elements ready to disrupt the harmony in the country but this was the lowest anybody could stoop.
Digging deeper, we tried to find out if there was a purpose behind this, but as things unfolded, it is getting obvious that it was all out of lust and frustration that Ahmad K. went this far to comment on Smriti Singh. We condemn to the core and demand action on this matter at the earliest.
The Role of Fake Accounts in Spreading Hate
When such actions have previously happened on the internet, we have been keen to observe a pattern. Be it mocking the departed – when CDS Bipin Rawat lost his life in the helicopter crash (joyous emojis were shared on Facebook), or be it a catch drop in Cricket by Arshdeep Singh (he was called out as a Khalistani traitor), or Mohammad Shami for losing a match against Pakistan (He was called a traitor again), we can see strong reactions against our own people and the analysis of the digital footprint they leave is surprising.
These are mostly fake or dummy accounts. People change their identity, religion, nationality and create multiple accounts to create ripples with keywords and sail over them to nurture the narrative that could hurt the national sentiments to a significant level. With the speed it reaches to your feed and spreads like wildfire, we should all be careful to not fall prey to such baits. This time with Mrs. Smriti Singh, the case is different and we will follow up closely to watch what happens, but how do we resolve this folly on a bigger level?
What is the solution to this?
The government of India is supposedly working on a bill that takes care of these challenges and if it is ruled out, it should serve as a powerful tool against the information warfare that we are sinking in today. A few things that we could come up with, to address such concerns are as follows:
1. Every individual social media account should have a categorized identity verified by the government.
2. This verification should be visible for every account like a blue tick on X/Meta/YouTube.
3. Independent pages, channels, and handles can be set up but should be followed by a government-based audit and verification.
4. Freedom of Speech should not be hindered with, but who is speaking should be known.
5. If this looks like too much machinery going in, the government should directly talk it out with social media companies about their policies, particularly in India.
6. If the talks don’t work well, the government should intervene and stop this ever-growing army of bots, fake news, and fake identity. If need be, we can think of a complete ban, like we did for Tik-Tok.
The latter point might sound too big to be true but we are not making this recommendation casually. The government can do this and still be on top of the economic scale keeping all relations well-maintained with the global companies that deliver these services. An example of such practices is China, where they do ban foreign companies with other intentions but the point that we want to make is that it is possible.
Besides, India today is standing at that position in the market of social media consumption that whatever we decide we can make the companies agree to. This time the thanks go to those billions of Indians who use these platforms every day now to express themselves or communicate professionally.
Let us know your thoughts on how we can curb this curse and get rid of unwanted things on the internet and become responsible netizens.
