ABSTRACT
Ranjith, reputed film director in Kerala, India, raged a social media furore in August 2014. The perturbation was pertaining to the so-called ‘social media vigilantism’ recently showed by people against film fraternity. 1 He shared his anxieties about the uncensored public sphere resurfacing on Internet, which anonymous user profiles are misusing in order to dishonestly disparage every single movie creative people try to make. He complained while harshly criticising artistic work, cyber activists do not seem to bother about the efforts and energy being spent for making a movie. Many such criticisms are unhealthy and borne out of petty reasons. He meant people who post against films without true spirit on Facebook timelines are insane. The film director dubbed those who make harsh criticism of films and film stars in connected spaces are doing nothing, but making a kind of ‘toilet literature’. The comment infuriated social media enthusiasts. Provoked out of the buzz, they retorted back at Ranjith through social media itself. Social media sites went viral on the matter and a perusal of the Facebook commentaries could be paraphrased in the following way.
