OPINIONS

Facebook, which owns both platforms, tells WIRED that it has expanded its content review team in India, and has made progress in pulling down content that violates its standards on its eponymous blue app. But WhatsApp, the far more popular platform, essentially has no community standards. Because all of its communication is encrypted, the content that flows through it is entirely in the hands of its users. After about 10 minutes, I handed Premi’s phone back to him. His mood seemed worse. I asked what he and the Bajrang Dal were focusing on these days. “Illegal immigrants,” he said. Millions of Bangladeshis, he told me, had infiltrated India and spread out across the country, and the Bajrang Dal was on high alert about it. “Have you noticed the illegal settlements of Muslims on the ou...

Ulfat Riyaz Kashmir, once known as The paradise on earth, now has the distinction of being a caged part of the world under different epidemics, for living under acute and severe conditions facing different episodes of trouble and hardships and enormous human rights violations for many decades. That includes a vicious circle of events like comprising torture, disappearances, displacement, assignations, explosions, killings, ballistic trauma, grieving, insecurity, oppression, poverty, uncertainties of career, relationships etc. Thousands of people lost their lives and property and thousands were rendered orphans and widows. Scores have disappeared. And those trying express realities to the world are being charged under unlawful acts. Frequent internet bans have affected every sphere of...

‘Diriliş Ertuğrul’ a historical TV series first aired in 2013, which has taken the Muslim world by storm since then. The series is based on Ertugrul Bey, who was the founding father of Ottoman Empire, Osman I. The series is focused on events leading to the formation of the Ottoman Empire. It is also known for its unique decision to abstain from the use of nudity within the series. It is part of the Islamic faith to be passionate about anything that demonstrates the superiority and dominance of Islam. As such, we understand why Muslims feel empowered by such a TV series. The power of media can easily bring our past back to the present and influence the future, which has recently been proven by the Turkish drama serial, "Diriliş: Ertuğrul" (Resurrection: Ertuğrul). The magnitude of thi...

The Narratives of the ‘Modern India’ are dangerous, developed to please the conscience of a few in a nation of multiplicity. One is burnt alive and few lynched simply for choosing the food they want to eat. Welcome to India of the 21st Century, where aggression and hatred is explicitly sermonized in news rooms (Pop Up battle fields). This is India of 21st Century where pursuing education after certain age is aberrant and a citizen with criminal backgrounds going to election is, Democracy. The unified effort by an increasingly Hindu nationalist state to normalize and mute potential alternative voices from educational institutes is a clear obstacle to the appearance of new generations of nation upholding a pluralistic understanding of Indian society. The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), in...