Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh addressing a workshop on 'Role of Digital and Social Media in Transforming Madhya Pradesh' in Bhopal on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: A.M.Faruqui

Bhopal

22 October 2019 18:04 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi roped in an American public relations firm for raising a “troll army” on social media to “upstage himself and downgrade opponents as part of a political strategy”, said Congress MP Digvijaya Singh.

“The primary strategy of the firm, advising Mr. Modi since 2007, has been to find ways to upstage its clients across the world,” said Mr. Singh, former Chief Minister, without naming the firm. He was speaking at a discussion on the role of social media in the State organised by the Digital Press Club here on Tuesday.

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Stating that he had joined social media in 2011, Mr. Singh said, “The abuses I have had to endure since then, never have I faced so many [abuses] in my life. But I don’t run away.”

‘WhatsApp as gospel’

There was a troll army out in the open, he said, and users took forwards on WhatsApp as gospel.

Mr. Singh referred to a study by the London School of Economics on the role of WhatsApp messages in instigating mob lynchings. “It was found that digital illiteracy is not the main reason, but prejudices against certain sections and religions is,” he said.

Regulation of social media and cyber security was the need of the hour to prevent acute polarisation in the country, he said. “These days, there is no need for an identity on Twitter. Using a false one, you could create 50 handles and no one is there to stop you. Several times, there is a direction from the top to target individuals,” added Mr. Singh.

There was a need for journalists to identify fake news and put the truth out there, he said.

‘Vicious messages’

And such vicious messages couldn’t be taken in jest, he cautioned. “You may get the joke but what about a person not aware of the context or history? It may affect them,” Mr. Singh said.

Law Minister P.C. Sharma said the government was not interested in publicity for its work through media. “We just want to let people know the intention of the government and its policies,” he said. He added that media organisations should present the positive as positive “and the bad only that way”.