Exposed! Pakistani Twitter accounts fuelling hate against Indian bowler Arshdeep Singh
While many Indians were able to see through the smokescreen and call out the Pakistani handles, some, unfortunately, fell for the hate campaign. Many of these trolls seemed to be following a toolkit of sorts to target Arshdeep.
FollowYoung pace bowler Arshdeep Singh was at the receiving end of hate-mongering after he dropped a crucial catch in the 18th over of the Super 4 clash against Pakistan in Asia Cup 2022. Especially on social media, the left-arm pacer was brutally trolled and even branded a 'Khalistani' by some on Twitter. But there is more to the hate than meets the eye.
Many of these trolls seemed to be following a toolkit of sorts to target Arshdeep. More so, many of these accounts were from Pakistan. The propaganda machinery has been working overtime. The widely shared message read: 'Indian TV anchor from ABP News calling Arshdeep Singh a Khalistani after India loses to Pakistan today. You can't even imagine the amount of poison these hate-mongers carry in their hearts for their own Sikh people.' The same tweet has been shared with many accounts. These have been shared by many accounts like Federal Public Service Commission (@FPSC_Islamabad) and M Hasan Sial (@IMHassansial)
While many Indians were able to see through the smokescreen and call out the Pakistani handles, some, unfortunately, fell for the hate campaign.
The Wikipedia page on Arshdeep was also defaced, once again, by users whose IP addresses originated in Pakistan.
What happened on September 4 night?
Team India had set a daunting target of 182 runs. Pakistan won off the penultimate ball of the innings. On the third ball of the 18th over bowled by Ravi Bishnoi, Asif Ali edged the ball in the short third man direction. Arshdeep, who was fielding in the position, dropped a simple catch.
The dropped catch swung the momentum in Pakistan's favour. Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave away 19 runs in the 19th over. Arshdeep was given the last over of the match, with Pakistan needing seven of the last six legal deliveries. He took Asif's wicket but could not stop Pakistan from winning the match. Arshdeep ended up with figures of 27 runs off 3.5 overs and a tonne of hate online.
Shami received similar hate
To recall, a similar backlash had come pacer Mohammad Shami's way when India lost their first-ever ICC World Cup match against Pakistan in October 2021. Even then, much of the hate propaganda seemed to originate from Pakistani Twitter handles. Using fictitious names, many of these accounts abused the pace bowler -- termed him a traitor -- and sought to encourage others to share the same.
