Bengaluru: With online media increasingly becoming the battleground for hate fests, a unique camp of activists to chart strategies to check the vitiation of the media was conducted at the United Theological College in the city for two days over the weekend.
The initiative, South India TechCamp, was organised by Talent Promotion Trust, AVANI, Eco Foundation for Sustainable Alternatives (EFSA) and Sheriff Foundation in collaboration with COVA, Hyderabad and US Consulate, Hyderabad.
The camp, which had participants from many cities across the country, discussed how online media is being increasingly used for hate campaigns to spread misinformation aimed to create distrust and alienation among different communities that result in hostilities and lead to violence.
Expressing concern over how communities and sections all over the world seemed to be getting afflicted by this phenomenon of online indoctrination leading to increasingly fanatic perspectives and actions by individuals and groups that are becoming organized and showing a swell both in terms of their numbers and their propensity to violence, the participants discussed ways to counter such trends.
Dr Mazher Hussain of COVA – Confederation of Voluntary Associations in India – said that the initiative by his organisation is aimed at promoting peace and countering hate campaigns on the social media networks.
“This was an initiative started by our organization to enable today’s youth to promote peace and counter hate campaigns on social media. This meeting was held for the South Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Those who attended pledged to hold similar camps in towns in their states, he said.
“This is a small initiative, part of a broader scale, and would be held in the neighbouring SAARC and Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia,” he said.
