Online trolling of the judiciary hits a new low, highlighting the relentless and organized campaign of intimidation
Online trolling of the judiciary hits a new low, highlighting the relentless and organized campaign of intimidation
The recent brutal attack on a judge of the Supreme Court of India by the IT cell of a major national political party has given the impression that there are a large number of people opposing the scathing criticism. Judicial criticism of Nupur Sharma, former national spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party, for his commentary on the Prophet. Instead, it may well be that a large proportion of all religious communities will feel a sense of pride that their standing will stand up to the tyranny of hate groups.
pertinent question
For the first time, the criticism from the bench has shown that some judges have a backbone and are capable of speaking the truth in front of power. Especially at a time when government interference with the judiciary is at its peak (with transfers and supersession of independent minded judges), the judge’s scathing and perfectly justified remarks are like a fresh breeze blowing through the country and the judiciary. and promoted the confidence of judges to face executive excesses.
Equally important, the incidents of the past few days and the mouth-trolling of judges raise very important questions regarding the ever-increasing tendency of the government to intimidate the judiciary. The questions that arise are: What are these groups that attack democratically minded individuals who speak out against injustice? Does the government have an underground network that acts as a part of the government? And, are they financially supported and ideologically encouraged to engage in hate speech? Finally, what should the judiciary do to stamp out such organized hate speech, whether against journalists, political opponents of the government or the judiciary?
development, political support
in his book, i’m a trollSwati Chaturvedi The Internet describes trolls as individuals who sow discord through inflammatory comments on the Internet. She traces the development of this network from the early 2000s and attributes its upward movement to the support it received from a senior political leader in the government. Right-wing propaganda websites constantly post hate tweets and defame journalists. They are supported by coordinated hashtag campaigns, where anonymous Twitter handles continuously retweet the same tweet until it starts trending.
She cites the example of tweets ‘imaginary instances of cow slaughter and love jihad’. Some of them ‘make fun of women facing sexual abuse and harassment’. He didn’t even spare his party leader Maneka Gandhi when he started a helpline called ‘#IAmTrolledHelp’.
A Twitter handle of this group has been engaged in continuous misbehavior with a well-known female broadcast journalist. Another hosted a photoshopped picture of a female actor attending the Aam Aadmi Party. One of this network called for ‘execution of undertrial prisoners without due process that the state should not bother to arrest the suspects but kill in cold blood’. An extreme episode was when the Congress spokesperson was threatened with ‘Nirbhaya-style rape by trollers’. There were trolls calling for ‘mass killing of Kashmiris, and dropping of bombs on funeral processions’ in reference to pellet blinding in Kashmir.
when journalists Gauri Lankesh was murdered in Bangalore In 2017, a Twitter handle followed by leaders of the party in power tweeted a message that contained a lot of profanity. Other journalists were also threatened that they were ‘going the way of Gauri Lankesh’.
The Wire reported that A network of 757 Twitter accounts was used to launch attacks against Mohammad Zubair (co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News) and the recovery email ID for the website, and the anonymous Twitter handle belonged to a young leader of the party in power. These accounts revealed sub accounts that ‘display a number of characteristics associated with bot-like and unauthenticated behavior’, posting more than 500 times a day at all hours of the day. Its purpose was to manipulate public perception Mr. Zubair’s arrest,
Similar targeting processes were managed by ‘Tech Fog’ (a ‘sophisticated app used by online operators to hijack major social media and encrypted messaging platforms’); Over eight lakh hostile replies were sent to tweets by women journalists, of which over five lakh were classified as ‘offensive’. The Wire commented that the operators of ‘Tech Fog’ are politically aligned and that ‘India’s political elite are silent’. One of the hashtags promoted by these operatives ‘reached an audience of about 80 million users’. Newslaundry reports that this ‘well-oiled propaganda machine churned out fake videos and massive tweet links to Twitter storms’.
Piercing Tech Fog on Automatic Trolling | in discussion
An ‘attack factory’ at work
Online abuse has often led to genuine violence, as in the case of an attack on a prominent lawyer by individuals who barge into his office. This is not surprising, because as Ms Chaturvedi reports, ‘party functionaries in power have publicly supported these trolls’.
The IT cell of the government has seen the expansion of its activity with the induction of many volunteers and salaried workers. Ms Chaturvedi has pointed out that the party in power has created “a bank of thousands of dormant Twitter accounts” to be used for “synchronized tweeting” and “storm”. The party also has ‘bots created by the central IT cell that tweet identical messages together’ so that they ‘look like a real user’. These volunteers and staff were given ‘hit lists of mainstream journalists who needed to be attacked continuously’. One of India’s most prominent and respected female journalists was attacked in ‘filthy words’ and threatened with ‘rape’. These volunteers and staff use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to ‘hide the user’s real location’.
Going back to the Nupur Sharma incident in the Supreme Court, it is important that the court understands that the country stands with the judiciary. Hate speech tweets are produced by a political party factory that produces millions of hate speech. A criminal investigation by an independent Special Investigation Team of the police is sought. Prosecution must follow. This hate speech creation network must be crushed. This is important for democracy to survive and the judiciary not to be intimidated.
Colin Gonsalves is a Senior Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India. Views expressed are personal
stamp this hate speech creation network
Online trolling of the judiciary hits a new low, highlighting the relentless and organized campaign of intimidation
Online trolling of the judiciary hits a new low, highlighting the relentless and organized campaign of intimidation
The recent brutal attack on a judge of the Supreme Court of India by the IT cell of a major national political party has given the impression that there are a large number of people opposing the scathing criticism. Judicial criticism of Nupur Sharma, former national spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party, for his commentary on the Prophet. Instead, it may well be that a large proportion of all religious communities will feel a sense of pride that their standing will stand up to the tyranny of hate groups.
pertinent question
For the first time, the criticism from the bench has shown that some judges have a backbone and are capable of speaking the truth in front of power. Especially at a time when government interference with the judiciary is at its peak (with transfers and supersession of independent minded judges), the judge’s scathing and perfectly justified remarks are like a fresh breeze blowing through the country and the judiciary. and promoted the confidence of judges to face executive excesses.
Equally important, the incidents of the past few days and the mouth-trolling of judges raise very important questions regarding the ever-increasing tendency of the government to intimidate the judiciary. The questions that arise are: What are these groups that attack democratically minded individuals who speak out against injustice? Does the government have an underground network that acts as a part of the government? And, are they financially supported and ideologically encouraged to engage in hate speech? Finally, what should the judiciary do to stamp out such organized hate speech, whether against journalists, political opponents of the government or the judiciary?
development, political support
in his book, i’m a trollSwati Chaturvedi The Internet describes trolls as individuals who sow discord through inflammatory comments on the Internet. She traces the development of this network from the early 2000s and attributes its upward movement to the support it received from a senior political leader in the government. Right-wing propaganda websites constantly post hate tweets and defame journalists. They are supported by coordinated hashtag campaigns, where anonymous Twitter handles continuously retweet the same tweet until it starts trending.
She cites the example of tweets ‘imaginary instances of cow slaughter and love jihad’. Some of them ‘make fun of women facing sexual abuse and harassment’. He didn’t even spare his party leader Maneka Gandhi when he started a helpline called ‘#IAmTrolledHelp’.
A Twitter handle of this group has been engaged in continuous misbehavior with a well-known female broadcast journalist. Another hosted a photoshopped picture of a female actor attending the Aam Aadmi Party. One of this network called for ‘execution of undertrial prisoners without due process that the state should not bother to arrest the suspects but kill in cold blood’. An extreme episode was when the Congress spokesperson was threatened with ‘Nirbhaya-style rape by trollers’. There were trolls calling for ‘mass killing of Kashmiris, and dropping of bombs on funeral processions’ in reference to pellet blinding in Kashmir.
when journalists Gauri Lankesh was murdered in Bangalore In 2017, a Twitter handle followed by leaders of the party in power tweeted a message that contained a lot of profanity. Other journalists were also threatened that they were ‘going the way of Gauri Lankesh’.
The Wire reported that A network of 757 Twitter accounts was used to launch attacks against Mohammad Zubair (co-founder of fact-checking website Alt News) and the recovery email ID for the website, and the anonymous Twitter handle belonged to a young leader of the party in power. These accounts revealed sub accounts that ‘display a number of characteristics associated with bot-like and unauthenticated behavior’, posting more than 500 times a day at all hours of the day. Its purpose was to manipulate public perception Mr. Zubair’s arrest,
Similar targeting processes were managed by ‘Tech Fog’ (a ‘sophisticated app used by online operators to hijack major social media and encrypted messaging platforms’); Over eight lakh hostile replies were sent to tweets by women journalists, of which over five lakh were classified as ‘offensive’. The Wire commented that the operators of ‘Tech Fog’ are politically aligned and that ‘India’s political elite are silent’. One of the hashtags promoted by these operatives ‘reached an audience of about 80 million users’. Newslaundry reports that this ‘well-oiled propaganda machine churned out fake videos and massive tweet links to Twitter storms’.
Piercing Tech Fog on Automatic Trolling | in discussion
An ‘attack factory’ at work
Online abuse has often led to genuine violence, as in the case of an attack on a prominent lawyer by individuals who barge into his office. This is not surprising, because as Ms Chaturvedi reports, ‘party functionaries in power have publicly supported these trolls’.
The IT cell of the government has seen the expansion of its activity with the induction of many volunteers and salaried workers. Ms Chaturvedi has pointed out that the party in power has created “a bank of thousands of dormant Twitter accounts” to be used for “synchronized tweeting” and “storm”. The party also has ‘bots created by the central IT cell that tweet identical messages together’ so that they ‘look like a real user’. These volunteers and staff were given ‘hit lists of mainstream journalists who needed to be attacked continuously’. One of India’s most prominent and respected female journalists was attacked in ‘filthy words’ and threatened with ‘rape’. These volunteers and staff use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to ‘hide the user’s real location’.
Going back to the Nupur Sharma incident in the Supreme Court, it is important that the court understands that the country stands with the judiciary. Hate speech tweets are produced by a political party factory that produces millions of hate speech. A criminal investigation by an independent Special Investigation Team of the police is sought. Prosecution must follow. This hate speech creation network must be crushed. This is important for democracy to survive and the judiciary not to be intimidated.
Colin Gonsalves is a Senior Advocate practicing in the Supreme Court of India. Views expressed are personal