Defund hate speech: IIM Bangalore faculty to corporate India

The toxicity being spread by news channels and digital media has forced a group of faculty members from IIM Bangalore to write an 'open letter addressed to corporate India,' urging them to ''defund'' the spread of misinformation and hate speech through news channels and social media.

BestMediaInfo.com has time and again written how the news channels and digital platforms use toxic content in the race for TRPs.

Many advertisers supported the issue raised by BestMediaInfo.com in 2020 and stopped advertising on toxic platforms.

The letter, signed by over a dozen current and former faculty members, aims to highlight the ‘fragile state of internal security’ and the ‘increasing risk of violent conflicts’ within the country.

“We, some of the current and retired faculty members at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, in our personal capacity, are writing this open letter to the leaders of corporate India, drawing their attention to the fragile state of internal security with an increasing risk of violent conflicts in the country and appealing that they defund the spread of misinformation and hate speech through news channels and social media,” the faculty members of IIM Bangalore wrote.

Although the letter appears to be a highly skewed propaganda piece against the central government, the facts pointed out about toxicity being spread by news outlets cannot be ignored.

Ironically, the letter signed by so-called intellectuals gets into fear-mongering while opposing the government.

“These trends concern corporate India, as they point towards an increasing risk of violent conflicts in the country. In the worst case, such acts of violence could culminate into genocide, which would annihilate the social fabric as well as the economy of the country, casting a long dark shadow over India's future. Corporate India, which hopes to reach new frontiers of international growth and innovation in the 21st Century, cannot afford to live with even a small possibility of such a scenario,” the letter said.

The rapidly increasing levels of radicalisation of citizens are fermenting an atmosphere conducive to large-scale violence being triggered due to unexpected disturbances. Even if India does evade such a risk, it is certain that the deteriorating social fabric in the country, due to increasing hate and dehumanising speech and radicalisation, shall inevitably lead to escalating violence and socioeconomic uncertainty, permanently paralysing the future of the country, said the open letter.

“We believe that maintaining peace, stability and cohesion in the country is of paramount importance to corporate India without which India cannot become an economic powerhouse. The leaders of corporate India have an important and substantial role to play in curbing the spread of hate and misinformation,” the letter added.

The open letter appealed to corporate India to:

1. Stop funding hate: Stop funding any and all news and social media organisations that publicly air hateful or genocidal content against a community of people.

2. Support responsible stakeholders: Conduct an internal audit to ensure that their funds, in forms like advertising or donations, go to only such stakeholders, like news and social media organisations that conduct themselves responsibly and not fan the flames of hate and misinformation.

3. Curate a welcoming work culture: Mandatorily conduct timely diversity and inclusion sensitisation events within their organisations to ensure their work culture remains welcoming to people of a variety of faiths and social backgrounds.

4. Use your voice for fraternity: Vocally ensure that India's diverse social fabric, public discourse and democratic institutions remain strong.

The signatories to the letter are: Anubha Dhasmana, Arpita Chatterjee, B K Chandrashekar, Deepak Malghan, Hema Swaminathan, Krishna T Kumar, Malay Bhattacharyya, Mira Bakhru, P D Jose, Prateek Raj, Raghavan Srinivasan, Rajluxmi V Murthy, Ritwik Banerjee, Shalique M S, Soham Sahoo, Srinivasan Murali and Vinod Vyasulu.

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