The arrest and release of social media campaign Inturi Ravi Kiran by the Andhra Pradesh police for allegedly posting objectionable content against IT minister Nara Lokesh and legislative council evoked mixed reactions from the mainstream media, particularly the national media.
Though many agreed that the postings were in bad taste, there was also a criticism against the Naidu government for trying to muzzle the voice of the social media taking Ravi Kiran’s episode as an excuse.
“Social media is just a platform to share opinions among a section. People say good or bad about a person or an institution. There are various ways to tackle the situation if they are any objectionable posts. But the government should not try to intimidate the social media,” a social media activist commented.
Even the national media did not take the arrest kindly. A popular national website wondered whether Lokesh wanted to be identified with Information Technology or Intimidation Technology.
“There might be hundreds of such Facebook pages where people are trolled. How many can the government close down?” he asked.
The best thing for Naidu or Lokesh is just to ignore such websites and blogs or Facebook pages. After all, these pages cannot influence the voters. If the postings are vulgar and abusive, people will automatically stop watching them.
