Weaponising Communication

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)