Online Hinduphobia is rising: report

THERE has been a sharp rise in hate speech directed toward the Hindu community across various social media platforms, claims a report uploaded Tuesday by researchers at the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Among the social media posts analysed by the authors were one million tweets, purportedly from Iranian trolls, disseminating anti-Hindu stereotypes to ‘fuel division as part of an influence campaign to accuse Hindus of perpetrating a genocide against minorities in India'.

The authors, who compiled data from across various social media platforms between January 2019 and June 2022, write that over the years, there has been a surge in ‘derogatory posts' against Hindus on social media platforms such as 4chan, Telegram and Gab, in the form of anti-Hindu memes, hashtags and slogans.

The signal on 'Hinduphobic' code words and memes reached record highs in June, which could trigger a spillover to the real world, especially in light of escalating religious tensions and violence in India, claims the report

One of the examples of violence used by the authors is the brutal murder of a tailor in Udaipur, Rajasthan, last month.

The report is important as it exposes growing online hatred, which has real-world consequences, write the authors. According to the researchers, there are various social media groups that have a new playbook to fuel hatred in the virtual world.