Social Media: A New Medium for Horrendous Acts of Mobocracy

As the human race is developing advanced levels of information and communication technologies and have considerably reduced the time and amount of data required to exchange the information from one point to another irrespective of time and space constraints, there is a negative aspect to this development that involves circulation of false information that is giving a force of jolt to a group of people who are ready to react without looking into the authenticity of such information leading to Mob lynching. And then there are elements in the society who, for their personal or political gains, give a boost to such behavior of the masses, compromising on the very fabric of the society of democracy shadowed by Mobocracy. Just as if a piece of information starting with the words, “The Scientists believe that” does not mean that it is a reliable information, same way the masses have to question every information on social media whether is authenticate or not. But some people due to a busy and a “slaves of technology” life style, read the social media headlines and believe with full faith that if it’s on social media, it has to be true. The situation has worsened in recent times due to circulation of false information on social media such as WhatsApp, which has led to incidents of Mob lynching. Triggering Mob Lynching is becoming a recent trend through WhatsApp messages. Nevertheless, such incidents can never hide from the gaze of judiciary, as recently the apex court has given directions to the government to curb the menace of Mob-Lynching through legislations on the same. As per the slew of directions given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, says that it is the duty of the government, whether at Centre or the state, to ensure law and order and to provide "preventive, remedial and punitive measures" to deal with mob violence and cow vigilantism to name a few