Recently, when actress Shilpa Shetty wrongly commented about the book, the internet broke with trolls directed towards her. People Googled about the book so that they can pass on an offensive comment.
Similarly, when UPSC topper Tina Dabi shared a personal news on her social media account, people lost it and flooded her social media feed with negative comments.
Getting a good laugh at the expense of someone else is an inherent attribute of humans, and it is fine once in a while as long as it does not hurt anyone's emotion. But, in recent times cyberbulling has become a trend and that too a dangerous trend.
In India, this bizarre trend has become a regular exercise and anyone, and everyone is a potential victim and a potential bully in the web world. From celebs to commoners to anyone having a presence on any social media is exposed to it which is rather a worrisome matter.
Here are a couple of the cases where commoners got trolled by cyberbullies for most ridiculous reasons and how they handled it:
Topper marrying second topper:
When UPSC topper Tina Dabi announced her relationship with 2nd topper Athar Aamir-ul-Shafi Khan, some people took it as a personal matter, and negative comments and backlash started pouring in regarding the religious and other such issues.
On this, Tina Dabi commented that "As any freethinking independent woman I am entitled to certain choices. I am very happy with my choice and so is Aamir. Our parents are happy too. But there will always be those elements, that small minority who will always pass negative comments about dating someone from another religion. It is just that 5%. The majority are very happy".
IPS officer Marin Joseph:
A certain publication decided to take the onus upon themselves to point out the most beautiful IPS and IAS officers in India and Kerala-based Marin Joseph topped the list. As a response, she asked a very good question "Have you ever wondered why we never see a list of the most handsome males in the IAS and IPS?" and slammed the publication for 'shameless objectification of women'.
Topper trolled for scoring high:
Sarthak Agarwal, the one who scored 99.6% marks and topped CBSE board exam, he instantly became the subject of trolls and memes and why because he topped the exam with over the top flying marks.
Sarthak never responded to the trolls, but netizens never forgave him for scoring high marks on CBSE exam.
Helpless daughter's plea invited trolls:
When Juhi Prakash tweeted to PM Modi and CM Akhilesh Yadav for financial help as she couldn't stand in endless bank queues due to demonetisation leaving her cancer patient father alone at home, Twitter people decided to teach her few lessons on digital money transactions.
To which she later had to Tweet 'I m requesting u to all pls isko mirch pasala nhi lagao my full support to PM sir mjhe notebandi se koi problem nhi h itne preshani k baad b' (sic).
Central government employee got trolled:
A certain Hindi-speaking central government employee posted in Pune decided to reach out to the Minister of his department with a request to transfer him to north India since it is difficult for him to operate among the Marathi-speaking population.
Even before, his response could reach the minister, Twitterati responded to his request with trolls. The matter got escalated as the government employee decided to respond to the trolls and soon, it was a full on battle.
The employee later had to delete his account in view of the comments and trolls and his superiors were not particularly pleased with his approach.
Though there may not be any specific cyber law provisions against trolls, but in existing law there are provisions, for example, one can file a case under IPC for defamation, stalking, and also outraging the modesty of a woman.