Perhaps
the biggest leap taken by mankind in recent time on social media or a messaging
platform was with the invention of WhatsApp.
It is
free (almost), it is convenient, and it is ubiquitous!
But
armchair warriors have turned this boon into a bane!
With several
hate messages going viral on WhatsApp following north-east Delhi riots, @DelhiPolice
tweeted on March 3:
“Hey
guys! Not done. You have taken the job of spreading नफ़रत so brazenly. Rest
assured, we are watching you all, and mighty well. While we know some of these
are fake IDs, be sure of our capabilities to hunt you down 😎. Take
this as a sweet warning! #DelhiPoliceNailsFake”
An
idea that was meant to unite is being used by bigots and zealots to divide.
They are spreading falsehood and – through it – also hatred. There is a term
that is being widely used for messages that have no basis, only bias – WhatsApp
University.
Again,
this is how a senior police officer in India, @IPSMadhurVerma, made a tongue in
cheek statement on Twitter recently…
“Friends,
with your best wishes just finished my post doctorate on #CoronaVirus from #WhatsAppUniversity.
I’m grateful to all including uncles, family etc for providing allopathic,
homeopathic, ayurvedic, mask, Baba/taabiz/jaadu techniques etc to prevent &
eradicate this virus !!” (Baba
in English is a witch doctor, taabiz is talisman and jaadu is magic)
Got
the drift? Brilliantly sarcastic! But the message is like crystal!
From
cancer cure to weight loss, from politics to architecture, from science to
the occult – there is no stage that WhatsApp warriors do not adorn.
Almost
everybody has heard of the Kalashnikov gun or AK-47. It is still the most
popular assault rifle, a potent weapon in close combat, but is being used
widely by terrorists and jihadists.
 |
It
was introduced in 1948 and soon became popular. The remarkable success was due
to several reasons, but the main factors are attributed to durability and low cost. However,
the celebrated inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov was pained when the gun’s
popularity grew amongst criminals and separatists.
He
regretted inventing the AK-47, saying that he never intended for the rifle to
become the preferred weapon in conflicts around the world. A news report once
quoted Kalashnikov, "Whenever I look at TV and I see the weapon I invented
to defend my motherland in the hands of these bin Ladens, I ask myself the same
question: 'How did it get into their hands?' "
Julius
Robert Oppenheimer, physicist and Father of the Atom Bomb, had also expressed regrets
over his invention after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were almost obliterated in
August 1945.
“We
knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried,
most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the
Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his
duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am
become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that one
way or another,” he is said to have observed.
In
the backdrop of such regrets – where a gun and a bomb are always weapon and will
obviously destroy, whatever is the scale – wonder what Brian Acton and Jan Koum
would be thinking after the weaponising of WhatsApp?
(In case of any criticism or suggestion, write to @jayantab15 on Twitter / Facebook or jayantab15@gmail.com)
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