DIGITAL LYNCHING TORCHES INDIA'S SOUL

India's digital landscape, a roiling cauldron of millions of social media users, has become a charnel house of the human spirit.

- PRABHU CHAWLA

INDIA'S digital landscape, a roiling cauldron of millions of social media users, has become a charnel house of the human spirit. Faceless trolls, shrouded in anonymity's toxic veil, have turned keyboards into guillotines. They are spewing venom that corrodes the nation's soul. Their targets? A grieving widow, a cricketing legend, a tennis pioneer, a Bollywood icon, a sports presenter, and countless others. These are not mere words but digital pyres, incinerating privacy and igniting virtual lynching. Algorithms, the infernal architects of this chaos, have transmuted personal pain into viral carnage, while India's heart bleeds, drowning in this digital pestilence.

Among the tormented victims was a young widow, her life shattered by the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed her husband, a soldier, days after their wedding. Her plea for unity-"We don't want hate against any community; we seek peace and justice"—had been met with a torrent of cruelty. "Crocodile tears for martyr money!" one X post sneered, racking up thousands of likes. Another jeered, "Your husband was a coward—good riddance!" It was shared across platforms, each retweet a lash on her grief. Her televised sorrow, meant to honor her husband's sacrifice, has been twisted into a public pillory, her dignity shredded by a mob algorithm. While Operation Sindoor delivered instant justice, her retort was equally sharp when she said: "Those who spread hatred have no right to live or to be on this earth."