Pune: The speakers at the ‘International Conference on Impact of Social Media on Peace and Security’ commented on how the influence of social media on human life has impacted national security as well.
The two-day conference has been organised by the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) in collaboration with other institutes.
Speaking in one of the panels, Prof Kamal Kinger of Punjabi University, Patiala, said that the social media is like a nuclear bomb that has been activated. “It cannot be defused. All we can do is think before we post or forward anything, regarding any sensitive issue,” he said.
Commenting on the post-Pulwama conflict that took place between India and Pakistan, he said that social media became a digital battlefield. “The war was fought more on social media than on the actual ground. Earlier, war meant a threat to the sovereignty and territorial harmony. Today, manipulation of minds is the new weapon of war. It created a clear divide between the people of the nation,” added Kinger.
Social media is a driving force Professor Utham Kumar Jamadhagni of the University of Madras spoke on how social media engineered one of the largest protests in the country in decades.
“The Jallikattu protest in Tamil Nadu initially began as a small event, when the residents of a small village in Madurai started hunger strike after the Supreme Court banned the traditional sport. As media reported it and it spread on social media, people started participating, and thus began the protest,” the professor said.
He stated that the protest began with a handful of people gathering at Chennai’s Marina Beach, and as people started adding up, on the 15th day (the last day), there were lakhs of people on the beach protesting for the cause. “It was a protest fully engineered by the social media. On tweets and posts from people, the protestors received all the facilities right from food to medical care and toilets,” Jamadhagni added.
Yashwantrao Chavan National Centre of International Security and Defense analysis (YC-NISDA), Department of Babasaheb Ambedkar Studies are the co-organisers of the seminar. They have organised this conference in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences, Nysa, Poland, Indo-European Education Foundation, Poland, University of Galati, Romania and Strategic Culture and Security Foundation, Pune.