Why Facebook needs a 'ban' button in Digital India
In India, it's no more about personal likes or dislikes, though elsewhere it could be the driving force behind Facebook's idea to introduce the much-awaited "dislike" button. Your freedom no more ends where my nose begins. In digital-going India, this right to swing the fist has crossed the barriers of other man's nostrils, essentially to nail neighbour's tongue and taste buds, alike.
In the garb of religion, intolerance has been empowered to impose bans on anything ranging from individual dress sense to personal faith or food habits, while defiance before the Kangaroo courts, amounts to capital punishment, even on hearsay charges. The latest victim of this deadly banocracy has been Mohammad Akhlaq, the Uttar Pradesh man beaten to death by mob over rumours that his family consumed or refrigerated beef during the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha.
Though last month, the Supreme Court observed that "a ban cannot be forced down somebody's throat" and that the "spirit of tolerance" was paramount, the bitter reality this month remained lynching of the poor man in Dadri, not that far away from the national capital.
While some vegetarian voices played man-eaters, their supportive right wing forces instead of condemning the September 29 gruesome incident, almost long for forensic analysis of septic-tanks, to certify if the accused family consumed beef or not.
But then it has almost been a year of bans. From real time mutton and beef to online porn, almost everything fleshy was banned from time-to-time. Though porn, which gained widespread sympathy especially through social media including Facebook, remained lucky to make a quick comeback, mutton and beef await ghar wapsi to dining tables, with many debating the prospects of consumption of onion, garlic and milk, as forbidden, in some communities or sects.
As about restive Jammu and Kashmir, the reimposition of over a century old ban on beef sale attracted so much of intolerance that on Eid Al-Adha the government ended up enforcing a three-day blanket ban on internet services. Call it fate or coincidence but on September 28, a million netizens were gagged back home when Prime Minister Narendra Bhai Modi highlighted the power of social media in the US.
As per a BBC report, he hailed the political power of social media, as he visited the headquarters of Facebook in California. Modi said: "The strength of social media today is that it can tell governments where they are wrong and can stop them from moving in the wrong direction." "We used to have elections every five years and now we can have them every five minutes," he added while Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg moderated the hour-long event.
On Modi's invite, Zuckerberg is scheduled to visit India later this month. Though Facebook looks ahead to introduce "dislike", ban is the trending mantra in its second largest market bole toh Digital India!