User Generated Content and Social Unrest in India

Abstract

The year 2020-21 engulfed the whole world with the Covid-19 pandemic. During that year India also witnessed one of the longest protests of recent times. The 15 months long farmers protest against the 3 farm laws ended with the repeal of the three farm laws by the parliament and with that ended the turmoil of Delhi-NCR people who faced the brunt of three blocked borders of the national capital. The uniqueness of these protests and the role of Twitter found a place in the subject of this study, User Generated Content and social unrest in India . Internationally also various latest examples can be enumerated where social order got disturbed because of the social unrestaggravated by the social media content. These incidents are the Capitol Hill incident of 2021 in the US, the Orange vest protest of Italy in 2021, the Black Lives Matter protest in the US in 2020, the Yellow Vest protest of France in 2018, Anti Extradition Bill protest of Hong Kong in 2018. However, the past decade has seen an emergence of new social movements. Like the ones listed above, these were powered by the ability to share and receive information in almost real-time, surpassing physical barriers and connecting between countries, among different social classes, and groups, to create grassroots movements and encourage dissent. It is correct that social unrest has been an integral part of human history and has contributed to fueling changes. From the Civil Rights Movement to the Arab Spring, strong messages and powerful leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, have encouraged people from all nations to take to the street and ask for reform, even when confronted with violent repression. It is also true that for a decade Social media platforms have been widely used in protests worldwide as a communication, organization, and mobilization tool which has nullified the need for a leader. The 2011 Arab Spring, one of the largest waves of unrest in recent history, would never have happened.