#dnaEdit: Facebook’s attempt to regulate conversations in Malayalam played into hands of online abusers

It is unfortunate that the facility provided by Facebook to report profiles that preach hatred has become a tool for conservative elements to silence individuals who use the social media website to raise uncomfortable questions. VP Rajeena, a Kerala-based journalist, who shared her personal experiences of studying in a madrasa, has been targeted with a flood of threats and abuse. Rather than support the beleaguered journalist, Facebook has deactivated her profile, possibly succumbing to the harassers who, in a coordinated manner, have reported Rajeena’s profile to Facebook for alleged violation of terms of use. It is unlikely that Facebook administrators can read Malayalam, the language in which Rajeena’s posts are written. Without understanding what she was attempting to convey, the company has heeded to the mob and its demand to get Rajeena off Facebook. The response to Rajeena’s post on the alleged paedophilic activities of madrasa instructors in the real world and online space reflects the essence of the intolerance debate that the country is currently witnessing. 

Despite the emergence of new social media platforms, it is becoming increasingly difficult to voice contrarian opinions. Individuals who dare to take controversial stances have to face online as well as offline backlash and resist the onslaught as well, as has been recently amplified by the needless controversy generated around actor Aamir Khan’s comments. More and more people are apprehensive of exercising fully their intellectual freedoms because of the fear of backlash that their opinions could provoke. Rather than generate outrage about child abuse and call for an inquiry, Rajeena’s post was viewed as an affront to religious sentiment. Her supporters would surely have wanted to join her campaign against the unequal power structures in Muslim society that translate into child abuse, but the online vituperation has forced them to address a more urgent issue: defending Rajeena’s right to free speech. While online abuse is an old phenomenon, the targeting of women, especially successful ones, has come to assume frightening and unacceptable proportions.

Recently, two Malayali women, a blogger who goes by the pseudonym Inji Pennu, and Preetha G, an activist, both immensely popular on Facebook, became the targets of misogynists, for speaking out on gender-related issues. Like Rajeena, both women found their profiles deactivated by Facebook. In Inji Pennu’s case, her use of a pseudonym apparently militated against the Facebook policy on using real names. Which brings us to the question: Can Facebook guarantee that all its users are actually using their real names? The policy also wrongly assumes that only abusers take the advantage of pseudonyms. Those attacking Rajeena and others with abusive language and threats of physical harm cannot take cover under the plea of free speech. Their defamatory actions qualify as cyber harassment and criminal intimidation. But the sheer numbers of these abusers pose a serious challenge for Facebook and the police. But the time has surely come for them to prosecute the online abusers whose numbers are steadily growing.

The developments place Rajeena and others in a serious dilemma. True, social media platforms have given them phenomenal reach and popularity but they have also become instruments that are used to attack and marginalise them. In Kerala, Facebook has become a vibrant space for engaging in social discourse in Malayalam, with politicians, journalists, actors, filmmakers, activists and artists participating in the online conversations.

Facebook must desist from the tendency to resort to mindless censorship. Having global ambitions, the company must hire locally in large numbers, and act with responsibility and understand the local contexts in which they are operating before proceeding to censor content. The deactivation of Rajeena’s profile harms not just Facebook’s credibility, but also the fight to protect free speech.