BJP’s Social Media Policy: Curb all Dissent and Encourage Trolls

On May 14, two unrelated persons from Mumbai had criminal charges filed against them for posting tweets with allegedly unsavoury and distasteful content expressing their discontent with the ruling government and party.

Ankit Patil, a 25-year-old travel agent, was arrested from Goregaon after police tracked his mobile IP address. Ram Subramanian, a 39-year-old ad film maker, was the other person against whom charges were filed, for a jibe at PM Narendra Modi and his mother on Mother’s Day.

Priti Gandhi, national executive member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mahila Morcha, who is the complainant in the matter, was quoted as saying “I had been observing derogatory comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Devendra Fadnavis for the past many days. Several people objected to the statements on Twitter and Facebook, seeking an apology from those who made the remarks. Recently, there were some unacceptable statements after which I first complained to senior police officials and then made an official complaint with the Juhu police station as well as the cyber cell of Mumbai Police. The cops at Juhu police station then registered an FIR against Ram Subramanian and Aniket Patil.”

These cases have also been compared to an incident in 2012 when two women, Shaheen Dhada and Renu Sreenivasan were arrested for posting and liking, respectively, a Facebook status questioning a bandh that was enforced post Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackrey’s death.

Ram Subramanian was quoted by The Wire as saying, “By registering a case against me, the police are trying to send out a message to everyone with a dissenting voice. […] This, while I continue to be threatened and abused on social media.”

While it is important to recognise these cases as an attempt by the BJP government to curb dissent, what must also be looked at is the patronage that the BJP and its leaders provide to an army of trolls on social media who propagate fake news and communally charged rumours, while also regularly harassing those who post criticism of the BJP, its governments and Modi.

Alt News had compiled a “hall of shame” of the various sorts of trolls who are all followed by PM Modi on twitter. The article reads like a directory of those who share sexist, communal and derogatory content on twitter. Additionally, the fact that Modi follows them is displayed as a badge of pride by these trolls.

This army of trolls had also turned on BJP leader and minister Ravi Shankar Prasad when he had tweeted a condemnation of the messages on social media which were celebrating the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh. Many of the trolls accused him of bowing down to secular media and betraying those working selflessly and tirelessly (themselves) for him and the BJP.

Recently, Vikram Hegde, who is the editor of Postcard News, was arrested by the Bangalore police on charges of spreading fake and communally sensitive news on his right-wing website. Hegde had also shared the same piece of fake news on twitter where Modi is one of his followers.

In September last year, Amit Malviya, who is BJP’s head of Information and Technology, said that Modi following someone on twitter is not a character certificate to that person. He further added “PM also follows Rahul Gandhi (Congress Vice President), who is an accused in loot and fraud. PM also follows Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi Chief Minister), who abused him on Twitter and told a woman 'settle kar lo' when she complained of a party member molesting her."

While the PM following a person on social media has no legal connotation of endorsement, for all of the BJP’s denial of it being a “character certificate”, in terms of optics and in the rationale of those he follows, it certainly appears to be a certificate to be paraded.

Thus, what is happening in reality is that the BJP, its governments and PM Modi himself are fostering an environment on social media where expressing dissent against the party, their leaders and their governments has become dangerous and such dissenting individuals are targeted. This has been achieved not just by the use of state machinery, but also by encouraging an army of trolls on social media.