Social media has evolved into an influential and powerful platform to express opinions of the mind since it shaped our digital societies through cultural and political dominance. But there has been a major drawback from which we are all suffering in one way or another: the audacity to use abusive and filthy language to counter others by disregarding professional and mental repercussions. From public figures to commoners, almost everyone has been guilty of using the platform for personal attacks filled with nothing but filth.
The recent controversy involving HasanZaidi-an influential journalist and filmmaker associated with Dawn Newspaper -and Fazeel Tajammul-a recently sacked employee of Bank Alfalah-has exposed the deeply embedded hypocritic yet abusive behaviour in our society. Tajammul’s trolling behaviour was highly condemnable who blatantly used unspeakable language against Zaidi’s mother.
In the heat of the moment, Zaidi decided to tag his employer on twitter and openly threatened to get him fired. Eventually, he did succeed since the bank obliged almost instantly. But there’s a key point missing. Tajammul’s twitter bio had no employment details mentioned and Zaidi had to stalk his LinkedIn profile to pressure the bank.
Being an influential public figure, Zaidi deemed it a necessity. However, looking into his own track record, he hasn’t been quite saintly himself. Consistently using abusive and sexist language on social media has been his signature tradition for quite a long time. Some of his colleagues in the media industry join the bandwagon through their own hypocritic and condemnable behaviour.
Blaming the ruling party for Tajammul’s behaviour is myopic for the fact remains that our society has casually condoned verbal and written filth directed towards female family members of a person for ages. Almost every household uses such language just for the sake of it owing to cultural dynamics. Whether spewed in English, Urdu or a regional language; nobody cares about its impact on women or the vast majority of youth.
Being voraciously active on social media myself owing to journalistic work, even I became victim of filthy behaviour on a few occasions. It does have mental repercussions in the long-run if not contained in a timely manner. The best thing to do is to block/mute the abusers.
High morality requires utmost ethics. Unfortunately, it’s a mirage when it comes to certain public figures. The bias of the mind is too strong which leads to shameful yet regrettable actions
Debates on whether Zaidi did the right thing are becoming widespread. Some believe that he had no right to misuse his position to fire someone like this and could have asked for a warning from the bank instead. Others were not so lenient since it’s about personal characteristics. Keeping in mind that Tajammaul did apologise but it was half-hearted and too late.
Zaidi himself never condemned the actions of politically likeminded members of the media fraternity such as well-known columnist Gul Bukhari, who consistently uses vile language against an elected prime minister of the country and the armed forces with complete impunity. When it comes to journalists, it is considered ‘blasphemic’ to call them out for their questionable actions. This clearly shows that our conscience is too weak to even admit mistakes made by one of our own.
High morality requires utmost ethics. Unfortunately, it’s a mirage when it comes to certain public figures. The bias of the mind is too strong which leads to shameful yet regrettable actions. Paradoxically, most of us are both the aggressor and the victim. Ignorance, hate and violence are interconnected to beget nothing but fear.
Perhaps, Bank Alfalah needs to reconsider its decision to terminate the employee for if we start firing people on the basis of the filth they spew then the list would be endless, which would include Zaidi as well. From CEOs to peons, almost nobody in the country would be spared in the end.
Serious deliberations are required to steer the society’s mindset towards civilised conduct. Progression in this regard would be painfully slow but each step towards civility would bear fruits for our future generations.
The writer is a journalist specialising in foreign policy and national security affairs