{"id":5179,"date":"2016-03-18T23:07:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T17:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5179"},"modified":"2016-03-18T23:07:47","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T17:37:47","slug":"kashmir-article-370-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=5179","title":{"rendered":"Can Social Media Leave Analysis of the Kashmir Situation to the Real Experts?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span><\/p><\/div>

n the last couple of days, there\u2019s been so much speculation about what\u2019s happening in Kashmir, we\u2019ve actually ended up having very little idea of what\u2019s happening in Kashmir. The last thing we officially heard before all phone lines and electricity connections were cut off in the state, two nights ago, was that additional troops had been deployed, and that the Amarnath Yatra had been truncated. A few politicians said on Twitter that they had been placed on house arrest, before WiFi networks were cut off across the state. For the next 12 hours, there was no definite word on what this meant, until Home Minister Amit Shah announced the next morning that the Centre had moved to abrogate the controversial <\/span>Article 370<\/span><\/a>, which granted special powers to Jammu and Kashmir, and had called in paramilitary forces as a preventive measure.<\/span>\n\nWhile all of this was underway, one section of society, however, claimed to actually know exactly what was going on \u2014 social media analysts. Going by the various conversations in the 48 hours prior to the official announcement, Kashmir was either dealing with the worst genocide since World War II, or in the process of liberating itself from the clutches of \u201cevil\u201d separatists. The trending hashtags went from the morbid #KashmirBleeds, to the alarmist #KashmirParFinalFight, to the celebratory #KashmirHamaraHai. The same social media experts that dissected <\/span>Zomato\u2019s<\/span><\/a> tweet-off with a bigot in detail for two days, had now transformed into experts in Constitutional law.<\/span>\n\nFor a layman who has absolutely no idea about the politics of Kashmir, one glance at social media on Sunday morning would have been enough to cause a serious anxiety attack. On one side, there was a very vocal crowd announcing that the government had finally decided to use Kashmir as a launching pad to wipe out Pakistan (<\/span>the usual lunatics<\/span><\/a>, lamenting about how they would have launched the missiles themselves, <\/span>if only <\/span><\/i>someone gave them access). On the other side, we saw an alarming number of comparisons to Nazi Germany and fatalistic comments about how India had turned into Israel overnight, whatever that means.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nIt seemed, at that point, that we were merely minutes away from the Armageddon. This was made evident by the number of Tweeters who were already standing in solidarity with the entire state. Barely a few hours from an official announcement, the conversation was already polarised, and misinformation had begun to spread.<\/span>\n

The same social media experts that dissected Zomato\u2019s tweet-off with a bigot in detail for two days, had now transformed into experts in Constitutional law.<\/p><\/blockquote> \nOn Monday morning, hours before Amit Shah officially spoke about what the government had planned, <\/span>WhatsApp forwards<\/span><\/a> had started doing the rounds, telling us where to buy land in Kashmir for cheap. <\/span>Travel websites<\/span><\/a> carried listicles asking if it was \u201csafe to travel to Ladakh right now?\u201d, and almost every Twitter personality, from random blue tick-holders to writer Chetan Bhagat had made statements, each more vague than the next. <\/span>And Arvind Kejriwal<\/span><\/a>, meanwhile, tweeted that he was for the government\u2019s move, causing himself to be officially cancelled by the \u201cliberals\u201d who love him most.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nOver the next few hours, as the bill was being presented and passed in <\/span>Parliament, <\/span><\/a>it had become evident that this was turning out to be a highly complex situation with many legal and moral angles to consider. That didn\u2019t stop the stream of hyperbolic phrases being thrown around, such as \u201cgrave violation of The Constitution\u201d or \u201cend to three decades of militancy\u201d. A side conversation celebrated the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the state, which Anupam Kher unfortunately called \u201cthe Kashmir Solution\u201d, a reference that wasn\u2019t taken too kindly. Another section was, meanwhile, turning their <\/span>display pictures red<\/span><\/a> in protest, and an even smaller section was arguing that staying silent would make us implicit in the torture of innocent Kashmiris.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nTo muddle things further<\/span><\/a>, each of these individual talking points spawned their own conversations, breaking down complex matters like the difference between a state and a Union Territory in 140 characters, either to hail the decision or protest it.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nWe were also treated to a number of <\/span>half-baked jokes<\/span><\/a>, several of them misogynistic in nature. On <\/span>TikTok,<\/span><\/a> a few men were making comments on how they\u2019ll travel to Kashmir to look for brides. Others gleefully thumped their chest at the thought that they could now buy land in Kashmir, even if their bank balances didn\u2019t fully agree.\u00a0 TKTK<\/span>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that, at that point, very few actual Kashmiris still had access to the internet.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s worth noting that, at that point, very few actual Kashmiris still had access to the <\/span>internet.<\/span><\/a> Sure there were the odd few comments from Kashmiris in other parts of India, talking about what this personally meant to them, and how it affected their families. There was also a number of enlightening threads from the more knowledgeable folk who broke down the timeline in detail, like <\/span>The Indian Express<\/span><\/i><\/a>, which gave out a detailed explainer. But none of that was as exciting as this chorus of extremely uninformed hysteria, which ended up contributing absolutely nothing toward explaining what was going on.<\/span>\n\nNow as more details emerge, experts will no doubt decipher the situation, and we\u2019ll have all the time in the world to argue about what may or may not be valid points. Like the good old days, when <\/span>social media<\/span><\/a> was the place where we could collate reports from various news sources to buffer our own opinions with actual information. After this particular weekend, it seems like social media analysts are dedicated to making their own headlines. Every individual \u2014 no matter how out of the loop \u2014 has a point of view. No one has time to wait for journalists to do their job anymore.<\/span>\n\nMaybe, just maybe, in situations as complex and grave as this, it would be better for these online analysts to just sit it out. Not one person would be upset if some random <\/span>blue tick profile<\/span><\/a> with 1k followers didn\u2019t entertain the world with their own opinion on the Kashmir affair. They\u2019d probably be happier without the two whole days of speculation and paranoia.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nBut, then again, social media has never been renowned for its restraint and balanced views. So it\u2019s all wishful thinking of course.\u00a0<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Going by social media posts 48 hours prior to Article 370\u2019s abrogation, Kashmir was either dealing with the worst genocide since World War II, or in the process of liberating itself from the clutches of \u201cevil separatists\u201d. With so much speculation, we\u2019ve actually ended up with very little idea of what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":5180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[8775,31,4555,357],"class_list":["post-5179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-article-370","tag-kashmir","tag-lok-sabha","tag-social-media"],"yoast_head":"\nCan Social Media Leave Analysis of the Kashmir Situation to the Real Experts?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Going by social media posts 48 hours prior to Article 370\u2019s abrogation, Kashmir was either dealing with the worst genocide since World War II, or in the process of liberating itself from the clutches of \u201cevil separatists\u201d. With so much speculation, we\u2019ve actually ended up with very little idea of what\u2019s happening.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5179\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Social Media Leave Analysis of the Kashmir Situation to the Real Experts?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Going by social media posts 48 hours prior to Article 370\u2019s abrogation, Kashmir was either dealing with the worst genocide since World War II, or in the process of liberating itself from the clutches of \u201cevil separatists\u201d. 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