Mass Exodus – 400,000 Assamese have left central India and blame is on Facebook & Twitter!

The unprecedented exodus of people from the northeast (in particular, state of Assam), abetted by hate

messages, has opened the debate about issues related to internet freedom and content regulation.

India, which is looking into communal elements in using morphed images on internet, has blocked over

250 websites for spreading the online campaign of hatred. SMS, Twitter and Facebook are considered to

be the biggest culprits fueling this exodus.

Government which is desperately trying to curb the violence and mass exodus is running around with

their heads cut-off. They have no clue how to handle this and whom to blame for this?

Given the past track record, government has come down hard on social media platforms to remove this

content and of course, blame Pakistan!

We realize the immense pain and suffering caused to large section of our population due to this. But, we

have few points that government of India should sit up and listen to –

1) Social media platforms are here to stay – 100 years back, it was newspaper that threatened to

destabilize the British Raj, then came Radio and TV. Popular mass communication mediums

don’t die, they just change shape!

2) Listen and Manage – In TV/Newspaper, you can hire and partner with influential journalist to

make them aware of the facts and hopefully, shape the conversation. You can do the same here!

And there is technology built in India that can help you do that.

3) Identify the culprits – If someone is the cause of creating such mass hysteria, they can be

identified easily and stopped within few hours time vs. taking few weeks to wake up.

4) Be extremely cautious – I will really ask you to be cautious that this technology should not be

misused by likes of some ministers (whom I won’t name here) to curb the fundamental rights

provided by the constitution.

Instead of being threatened by social media platforms, look for clues on how you can take pre-emptive

action and shape a constructive conversation.

Social Media sooner or later will become the more reliable source for news and information. Do you

think the Government of India should order investigation to find out the reasons why such criminal acts

of rumor mongering happen at such a large scale, instead of blaming social media for the Assam riots?

Do you other suggestions, how Government of India should react to such criminal acts?

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