When Twitter gets bitter

While most of us awoke to the happy thought of a new day, one among us woke up to a not-so-flattering YouTube video. TV serial queen, Ekta Kapoor, had the unhappy experience of seeing her once-popular soap opera Kasamh Se, being mocked in a YouTube video that has now gone viral. The video, which is titled ‘You India You Lose’, made by popular Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie pokes fun at the over-the-top special effects and melodramatic acting in the serial.

However, this didn’t seem to go down well with the producer and she slammed the YouTuber in a series of angry tweets. “Bhai tu kaun hai! Luks like d firang junior artists we hire from colaba when we Create Paris in arey:) he will find his dopplegangers in kasam se only;) (sic),” the actress wrote. Ekta further went on to accuse the YouTuber of being irreverent about ‘everything in India’s popular culture’ and urged people to remember that ‘his video which we pass as sarcastic n ‘humourous’ was titled ‘India u lose’. But in the end the producer received flak for her tweets with many calling her response racist and immature.

While this outburst has become the talk of the town, this isn’t the first instance where a celebrity has gotten embroiled in an ugly Twitter spat. One remembers quite distinctly a heated, but hilarious ‘Twipartee’ shared between Abhishek Bachchan and comedian Karan Talwar, who goes by the moniker ‘Bollywood Gandu’, as well as the war of tweets between Twinkle Khanna and Chetan Bhagat.

While celebrities continue to claim that the best way to deal with trolls is with silence and that trolling doesn’t affect them, their actions often prove otherwise. As social thinker Anil Dharker says, “For any celebrity to get into a Twitter argument is futile. It is a waste of energy and time, unless they choose to find something positive in the criticism and learn from it. Otherwise, what’s the point of bickering on social media?”

While this question doesn’t have a single answer, the desire to grab attention seems like a plausible one. “Maybe a lot of celebrities also get into these arguments on social media because it gets a lot of eyeballs,” adds Anil.

However, comedian Karan Talwar feels one can’t plan these things, because the negativity is too much to handle. “Ekta’s reaction is natural, as it is human nature to react to something negative being said about you. If you’re having a bad morning and you see something that irks you, you will surely react to it in that moment,” he says.

With celebrities succumbing to the urge to fight back on social media, motivational speaker Nisha Jamvwal feels that the impulse to do so can be avoided if one learns to take online banter with a pinch of salt. “You can’t have thousands of followers applauding you, and not be willing to take the downside of social media. Life is not all about praises and accolades. Everything in life comes with fine print. Social media is no different. I pe-rsonally am not too sympathetic with people who take social media comments personally.”

Comedian Anuvab Pal points out, “It is your sense of humour that impacts the way you deal with social media trolls. Very often, it’s your sense of humour that impacts your response.”

So, if one does not have the stomach for social media, rather than staying put and getting caught up in unhealthy online arguments, stepping away from the platform seems like the better way to go.