In the latest development where another social media giant has been found hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus, a complaint has been filed against Instagram by a Delhi resident named Manish Singh. Reportedly, in the story section of the platform, a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) of Lord Shiva could be seen with a wine glass in one hand and a mobile phone in the other hand with a smirk on the face. Naturally, the netizens were enraged at the portrayal of their holy deity in such a lewd manner.
This shiva sticker on Instagram disrespects hindu God Shiv ji.@instagram is islamgram? pic.twitter.com/VSt1W27A9R
— Shahcastic – Mota bhai 😎 (@shahcastic) June 8, 2021
The complainant claimed that the GIF had been created with the sole intention to hurt the Hindu community. The complainant also alleged that the “accused (Instagram) is deliberately and intentionally hurting the feeling and sentiments of the millions and millions of Hindus, including the complainant, by portraying the Supreme God, Lord Shiva, in such a state.”
Consequently, Mr Manish demanded that a criminal case be registered against the CEO of Instagram and other officials under sections 153 and 295A of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
The Facebook-owned platform has been involved in several controversies lately. Reported by TFI, Instagram had deleted a fact check post by Press Information Bureau (PIB) without doing its due diligence.
An image allegedly quoting a French Nobel Laureate on #COVID19 vaccines is circulating on social media
The claim in the image is #FAKE. #COVID19 Vaccine is completely safe
Do not forward this image#PIBFactCheck pic.twitter.com/DMrxY8vdMN
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 25, 2021
The fact-checking arm of PIB dismantled the claims made by one French Nobel Laureate named Luc Montagnier that people would die two years after taking the vaccine by sharing a post on all social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
However, Facebook and Instagram, which claim to have top-level, highly qualified fact-checkers and moderators in their team, failed to rein in the fake news circulated on the platform and instead deleted the PIB post which tried to clear the air of rumour-mongering.
Read More: From ‘you are being warned’ to ‘technical error’, Facebook backs off after threatening PIB account
Reported by TFI, social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, and Twitter run the risk of losing their status as “intermediaries” and may become liable for criminal action if they do not comply with the revised regulations. While Facebook, WhatsApp and Google have seemingly complied with the IT laws, Twitter has been served the final notice by the government of India to enlist its compliance officer as well as appoint a company employee as grievance officer and a nodal contact person.
With a grievance officer in place, the government and the authorities, along with the users can hold Instagram more efficiently for the lewd GIF case, which otherwise would have been referred to the US officials of the company.
No need to overreact. In Hindu lore Shiva is known to be a consumer of intoxicants. Shiva is no ordinary being, the entire universe resides in him. Nobody can insult him as he is far above all this. His devotees need not be insecure as he can very well take care of himself. Such stupid images can’t touch even his tiniest pore. He is just too powerful for this.
Why don’t you give this gyan to Islamists then you piece of shit? So much intellectual tolerance when it comes to Hinduism but extreme intolerance when it comes to Islam? I wonder what reactions we’d get to see if Instagram puts up a GIF with Prophet Muhammad. By your logic there shouldn’t be any reactions or overreactions since Prophet Muhammad is no ordinary being & he is too powerful for this & his devotees need not create a furore over it. Right?