Intolerance!

Intolerance!

When was the last time you received a forward on Whatsapp and started believing it was true and started forwarding it to your other friends to know about it? When was the last time you actually did a google search about a news/post you saw on Facebook?

Actions speak louder than words

This quote, though quite an old one, is true. In a positive and negative sense. Actions can build a nation and actions can ruin the nation. It even applies to every individual as well. One should always be careful and responsible for their actions. They may affect someone in a negative way even when you do not intend to do so.

A week back I was seeing many posts about Snapchat. Some pages on Facebook wrote about this multi-billion dollar company saying that some ex-employee from the team of snapchat gave an alleged statement that the CEO of snapchat told that 'snapchat is for the rich and I do not want to expand into countries like India and Spain'. This was something that happened two years back according to the same employee. It was clearly stated that the statement was allegedly made. There is no proof for it. It is not necessarily true. The ex-employee might have given this statement in distress of being fired. 

A statement which has no proof spoken by some person behind close doors caused such chaos in the nation. Every other person who did not even know about the application was installing it and giving1-star rating and then uninstalling it to show the CEO what a Rich India can do. Even I was furious when I read his statement about the nation. Later I had a thought about it and came to a conclusion that I need not prove some stranger about my nation. I know what it is. And the world will get to know what my nation is capable of.  Even if he did make the statement, what is wrong in it? It would be his misconception and a huge loss for his company. So what if there isn't snapchat in India? Will it make our country seem poor? I do not think so.

img source: https://www.snapchat.com/

I still am wondering why the youth of our nation, who account to the maximum number of users of this app, became intolerant. People even started posting demeaning comments on Mr.Evans fiance's wall, showing hatred towards Mr.Evans on her profile on social media. Where are our ethics? Where is this intolerance leading us to? Our reactions started to show that we are poor, in our thinking. The company claims it has the maximum profits from USA. What kind of difference would it make if many users from our nation uninstall it. The rating went down, that is true, but it did not make him any poor. And it did not even prove any point. After a few days of this, another news surfaced saying that Indian hackers hack snapchat and release the data of over 70 million people. I believe that even this is not a credible piece of news, but it does have an impact on someone who is already angry about the issue. And a single statement is not what you consider and invade the privacy of millions.

This is just one among the many cases that are surfacing in our nation. Demeaning a huge company or organization just by reading something on social media which isn't legitimate. A famous restaurant in Hyderabad was shut down for selling dog meat a few months ago. It wasn't true, but the fake news spread by a single person to skip a treat for friends changed the fate of the restaurant in a couple of days. A few weeks ago, a person threatened the airports around the nation, so that he could cancel a holiday with his girlfriend. What is happening here? I receive many forwards on whatsapp everyday. I do not believe any of these forwards without having a look over the internet for any proofs of its authenticity. Lately I received a video of limousine being driven in reverse gear over a course and the message attached with it said this was the level of training the driver of the presidential limousine has to go through. I will drop a link of the video that I have received below. Me being a car guy, I understood as soon as I saw it that it was from a video game (FORZA MOTORSPORT 2) and the video was made just for fun. And as a fact, the presidential limo can never do any kind of such maneuvers that are seen in the video, because it is really heavy and the basic dynamics defy the actions of the video. 

Healthy criticism is always welcome for growth of an individual or a huge organization. Trying to defend something will never help us to grow. Actions speak louder than words, an old saying. You do not need to defend yourself when you know what you are and what you are capable of. In my opinion, making fun of the situation is kind of acceptable, but reacting in such an erratic way is not. We need not show some company that owns an application which probably any person from our own nation can develop, that we are rich. Why didn't the nation react by actually making something that would give strict competition to snapchat and showcase it to the world and prove what we as the youth of India are capable of?

Everything that surfaces on social media is not to be believed. When we have access to social media, we also have access to the whole source of internet. When we are willing to believe what we saw on social media, why can't we just open up any search engine and find out how legitimate the news is. Every piece of news will have its positives and negatives, maybe true, maybe false. My first reaction after seeing the news about snapchat was to try and find some source of proof about the statements that were said to be made. And I couldn't find any kind of proofs. All I found was this, ' Ex-Employee of snapchat makes alleged statement saying that Mr.Evans said his app was only for the rich and would not like to expand to poor countries like India and Spain. I have also seen various of his other interviews and he never made any such kind of statements. And I did not even find any article or news about the Spaniards reacting to these alleged statements.

In the end, I just wanted to share my opinion about the whole scenario wherein we encounter fake news that keeps propagating on social media. Before making any kind of a statement or a joke, I would request all of you to verify the credibility of the information you have received. A single statement made the whole nation intolerable and almost lead to the downfall of a multi-billion dollar international company in the nation. Just have a thought, that someone out there will also be affected by our statements. Social media can make people and break people. So be careful about what you believe and what you trust.

Link to the video of the presidential limo : https://youtu.be/561v2eLMKLs

- Sushant Thotakura