Anti-social Networking

The beast called identity theft roams free in the wild jungle of social media.

A couple of days ago,the entertainment supplements of most national newspapers gleefully carried headlines about the Twitter war between actor Chitrangada Singh and wannabe somebody Poonam Pandey.

I was both amused and appalled at the amount of column space devoted to this alleged catfight where two women hissed and clawed,exchanging vitriolic comments about each others lack of talent and popularity. Both ladies garnered masses of free front-page publicity in colour supplements,which they could hardly have generated through either their riveting on-screen performances or clichéd threats of stripping naked every time the Indian cricket team managed to win a match. It then emerged that poor Chitrangada didnt even have a Twitter account and some impostor had been tweeting these offensive messages using her name. It,however,didnt seem to matter to the press that Chitrangada was a victim of identity theft and she had been unwittingly dragged into this scurrilous polemic that wasnt of her making.

The media simply milked the raging Twit fest for all it was worth and chose to ignore the real lesson to be learnt here. That it is incredibly easy for celebrities to fall prey to unintentional controversy simply as a result of identity theft.

Today,it is virtually effortless to register a Facebook or Twitter account in the name of any famous person of your choosing and then attribute the most defamatory comments to them through these social networking sites.

By the time the unsuspecting victim is even aware his name has been appropriated,the damage is done. Identity theft is considered a serious crime that attracts a heavy penalty abroad. But in India,an online impostor is rarely caught and hardly ever punished. Of course,there is no shortage of celebrities who genuinely and rashly tweet and post all sorts of bon mots that spring to mind.

Several bombastic Tweeters have found themselves mired in controversy after posting nasty reviews or vicious comments about rivals. Malicious remarks in cyberspace often lead to fisticuffs in the real world,as we have seen recently in the case of Shirish Kunder and Shah Rukh Khan.

Anurag Kashyap impulsively posted a spirited defence decrying Arbaaz Khans decision to sack his brother from helming the sequel to the film Dabangg. Realising he had overstepped himself,Anurag apologised and deleted the tweet but it was too late and the ravenous media feasted on his juicy twitbit for weeks.

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Similarly,a witty social commentator,never at a loss for words,recently shot off a couple of deadly darts condemning a magazine that had written an offensive review of his new book. Despite withdrawing his diatribe the next morning,the damage was already done and he was roundly criticised for his impetuosity. Social networking,it seems,is like nuclear technology. It is a powerful tool when employed responsibly and a deadly weapon that will backfire if used rashly.

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