Eighty-two kilometres from Srinagar, in the shadow of empty hotels, shops, and shuttered guesthouses, three shopkeepers sit on the pavement outside, their eyes fixed on the phone screen. They are watching a YouTube video featuring a vlogger called B Boys who has 2.44 million subscribers on YouTube. He is seen roaming Srinagar city with a camera, pressing Kashmiris to speak out on the recent terror attack that killed 25 Hindu tourists and one local Muslim. “Why don’t you come out and protest? Why don’t you speak against this attack?” he demands, his lens fixed on hesitant faces. Then, flipping the camera on himself, he declares, “Everything seems normal… people are supporting… but whoever is supporting this attack is also a terrorist.”
Raqib Hameed Naik, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), told Frontline that it was not spontaneous outrage but an organised response that is “deeply networked across multiple platforms”.
“It’s a recurring playbook that we see: far-right groups and supporters of the ruling party activating after any such incident. It builds a malignant narrative against a target group, which often begins with a few prominent influencers and far-right social media accounts with significant followings posting hate content, which is then amplified by larger ecosystem players, including members of the ruling party,” Naik said.
He told Frontline that the campaigns quickly shift from that of grief to coordinated calls for hate, exclusion, and retaliatory violence against Muslims, and in this case Kashmiris as well.