With the emerging of the shameful incident like ‘Bois Locker Room’, millennials have yet again taken it to their social media handles to play the part of Police. Indeed, Social Media plays an integral part in our society where half of the world takes it as the platform to talk about things never said before. As much as an integral part it is, we have to pay for the price of this platform. This time, it cost us the life of a young boy, Manav Singh. And let’s not forget the death of Sushant Singh Rajput which has got people bullying multiple celebrities. It is time to talk about Social Media Accountability.

The 17-year old boy was accused of sexual assault by a girl on Instagram, that occurred two years back. All the accusations and threats made caused Manav Singh panic attack.
This incident has raised questions such as ‘Was he even wrong?’, ‘Were the allegations true?’.
The biggest question that is ‘Should we, as a part of Social media, be held accountable for the things we share and post every day?’.
The amount of courage it takes for one to bring things like this in open is commendable. Following the suicide, many people began blaming the girl for sharing the story. We cannot blame a victim for sharing their story and that has to be noted and understood with great empathy is that. What can be done is to handle such situations with an insight that can help people reform and do better. To bring about such reforms, it is imperative that people talk about their problems and make them heard. We must not take their right to express themselves in any way, especially in times like this.
The role of Proofs on Social Media
We often talk about proofs produced in such cases. With no proof gained in situations like this, people shouldn’t forget that there are times when sexual assaults cannot be traced. Lack of proof or evidence does not indicate the absence of the crime. Instead of taking the blame game to its heights, we should understand the repercussions of the actions we make even on social media. The same could be said about the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Social media to news channels have taken it upon themselves to “deliver justice”. But this vigilantism can surely backfire with people ganging up on others and taking matters in their own hands.
People making hate comments and shaming others on Instagram or any other social media is just another indecent act of defamation. The idea of social media always indicates to influence others. The things we see online and scroll past aren’t just something we can walk past from without being influenced by it.
We do not know Manav’s or Sushant’s story and we did not get a chance to hear it. Every person has the right to be heard before they succumb to the failures in our system. The idea of punishment is always reformation. Something that can be reformed must not be thrown away. We have a governed body of law and justice, we have the Judiciary. Before we lose people to such acts of public defaming, we need to learn from our mistakes. It is never an easy task to be familiar with all the aspects of a story. Let us refrain from putting our opinion forward until we know the truth. It has never been our place to give judgments.
There is no side to pick in a situation like this and I, too, refrain from picking any. The way we lost Manav is wrong, even if he did commit something wrong. What happened with Sushant, we do not know. But we have to keep faith in the law. Asking people to kill themselves on social media and playing the part of Police in such cases is not the solution to what is wrong. Understanding the consequences of our actions and educating ourselves is what we can do to make things better. We are all a part of Social media, it would be best if we learn and make it a space for reform.
By Navya Joshi
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