Death of an anonymous Twitter handle - Till unmasking do us apart

“What is it that dies the moment you say its name?” It’s a common children’s riddle with its answer as ‘silence’.  The same riddle could apply to anonymous Twitter troll handles - who when 'unmasked' could die instantly in Twitterverse.  

We are meeting Rajan Gupta, director of ad monetisation at U2opia Mobile, on the latest turbulence social media has caused in his life.

While Gupta was away on a business trip in Dubai, Chennai-based founder of The Startup Centre, Vijay Anand, accused Gupta of being Unicon Baba, the owner of the handle @Uni_con1 of the Twitterspace.

Gupta declines that he is even remotely connected to the Twitter handle.

When Moneycontrol talked to Anand on Wednesday evening, he was determined to take legal action against the owner of the Twitter handle and was of the firm belief that it was Gupta.

On the other hand, Gupta completely denied being Baba to Moneycontrol. While both Anand and Gupta have been the affected parties, there seems to be no end to the trend of anonymous trolling in India, first pioneered by the country’s political parties.

A top official in the social media team of one of the major national parties told Moneycontrol, that there is an army running in lakhs of accounts for the party, which gets activated once any major election nears. At other times, when the trolls are bored, they start trolling each other, just to keep the accounts active.

“But who are these political trolls?” I asked.

They are generally students who are paid to make multiple accounts and keep them active to serve the purposes of their political masters, am told. Many PR agencies too have started fake accounts to serve brands which want to launch a product or service in the market.

When does anonymous trolling become harmful?

A man of Gupta’s stature, with a wife and kid, could be impacted by anonymous name-calling on Twitter, lest for an understanding boss.

Sumesh Menon, chief executive officer of U2opia Mobile told Moneycontrol that the incident of Anand calling Rajan as Unicon Baba has nothing to do with the company and it is an allegation between two individuals.

Other employers could jittery when a person is found to have to have multiple anonymous Twitter accounts which could harm or disclose important information about the company or harm its business relationships.

Trolls attacking professionals or entrepreneurs and harming their company’s brand reputation could also impact business.

In another instance this month, Hasgeek founder Kiran Jonnalagadda, co-founder of Hasgeek and Internet Freedom Foundation was being trolled by anonymous Twitter handles, calling him names and disapproving of his tweets against government’s Aadhaar program. He was inclined to reply back.

Sharad Sharma, co-founder of iSpirt, and one of the leading voices on the Indian startup ecosystem admitted to being the man behind a few of the handles trolling Kiran, and his likes for anti-Aadhaar tweets.

“I took a week-long holiday to take my 3-year-old to the hills and spent most of it fighting trolls on Twitter. Never going to get that week back,” Kiran tweeted after Sharma came out in the open.

I took a week-long holiday to take my 3yo d to the hills, and spent most of it fighting trolls on Twitter. Never going to get that week back

— Kiran Jonnalagadda (@jackerhack) May 23, 2017

In both instances, the victims had tried to unmask - their perpetrators through hit and trial methods of finding an email or phone number behind a Twitter handle.

Death of a Twitter handle

As Unicon Baba was allegedly ‘unmasked,’ there was heightened activity in Twitterverse in the hours that followed. One saw trolls getting active, protecting each other and retweeting each other in solidarity and expressing condolence as if one of them had died.

Anonymity is the only power and elixir Twitter trolls enjoy. Take away that, and they become real world morals, prone to emotions of grief, attachment, anger, bias, fear and helplessness. Anonymity and their cult following make them demi-gods giving them influence over mere mortals.

Hey @rajangupta I feel sorry for you but I am on a much bigger mission. Need any help just DM me anytime. https://t.co/oOi3PCRJU5

— Unicon Baba (@uni_con1) May 22, 2017

Gods who can never be seen but are always watching over you. Gods which will punish you if you err, by calling your error out in open. Gods which could even go to the extent of collaborating with other such Gods for a cause. Take away the mask of anonymity and the whole power of the demi-God army vanishes.

Political leaders understand the power of such trolls and thus employ and cultivate many in their service. Corporates pay agencies to get such anonymous accounts tweet for brands or endorse them in a collective manner.

Should online social platforms restrict anonymity?

Does that mean that such trolls should not be allowed to exist or social platforms should come up with stricter authentication policies to eradicate this menace of anonymity? Absolutely not.

Going after social media handles - namely independent voices who have mustered the courage to speak against their corrupt industry peers or the government of the day and calling out policies or suspicious deals could harm the ecosystem.

The ‘death of anonymity’ by social media platforms could mean the death of fearless tweets that could uncover sinister plots in India's corporate or political circles, in India's unlisted companies, where often the only corporate governance is that of the moral conscience of the co-founders and owners.

For opinion makers who don’t get a vent for controversial stories - anonymous social accounts provide a vent to stories which the public would never read, view or uncover.

Anonymity also gives these trolls - access to voices - who wish to report about misdeeds inside a company or a political party - but are unaware of whom to approach.

Correct, that sometimes Trolls cross boundaries and use derogatory words, some unscrupulous ones - use the power of anonymity negatively. Unmasking such handles may not be a bad idea - social platforms could be have to a policy to uncover that.

For the others who act as whistleblowers to the political and corporate ecosystem of the country, ‘a death by unmasking’ will only hurt the ecosystem, even more.

Also read: Want to present a zero make-up side of startups: Unicon Baba

harsimran.julka@nw18.com

(This is an opinion piece. Views are personal)