Disturbing Trend

There is a disturbing trend that I see growing fast.

Owing to the explosion of imaging/video tools that are easily available, many innocent people seem to fall a victim to morphed images/videos that are held against them, by groups that seek out money or other favours in return. Many of these victims find it difficult to stand up and fight—given their own inner fears and lack of support from family/friends who choose to keep out or in some cases, add fuel to the fire!

I feel pained to see that many people in social media, who are attracted to see such images/videos posted—may be on film stars or politicians—keep “forwarding/liking”, without adequate due diligence on the underlying truth/facts or even pausing to think before “forwarding/liking” those images/videos!

Take the case of Swathi, who was working for Infosys, who got brutally murdered in the early hours in a railway station in Chennai—and there were many people around who either moved away or were mute witnesses—who failed to stand up at that moment!! I noticed that the Television media kept talking about her possible private life with the boy etc., albeit with suitable disclaimers! Let’s visualise for a moment the plight of the family that has to handle the social repercussions of such non-verified perceptions, in addition to coping with the loss of the dear one!! Similar things happen when one faces such a scenario with groups with negative motives!

In the last year or so, in some of my counselling sessions, I had to deal with such victims—in one case, the morphing was done using a group of simple images shot during a family wedding event!! Although, one can ascertain the validity of such images/videos using different technologies and come out totally clean, it is usually too late by the time the truth is ascertained—with the emotional damages already done!! In some extreme cases, the victims who could not handle the emotional turmoil have even ended their lives, leaving their families in dire straits!!

In one such counselling session, I asked the victim,

“Why can’t you stand up and fight, when the truth is on your side?”

The victim said,

“It is very easy to advise others on standing up and fighting—I am not sure if you would stand up and fight if this were to happen to you!!”

I realised that any answer I give the victim, at that time, would be purely academic in nature and in the process I was put into deep introspection too!

It is a fact that, even the smallest blot on ones "Character" is almost a permanent one—many times non-erasable! The human predators seem to know this fact deeper than many victims may realise. Let’s also be more discreet in our “likes/forwards” or in our funny comments, on such posts—as we might be contributing forever, to the mess in someone’s life.

At a deeper level, we need to watch our own Conduct in general (public or private)… If this one aspect is taken care of, the likely blots can be substantially reduced.

I would like to close this post with a powerful quote:

“Intelligence shines through Knowledge—Education sparkles through Conduct”.