Where are the institutions heading?
[Personal Opinion Piece]
The morning of 7th January 2020 started on an alarming note. The shameless images from US Capitol, and an official “Do not reply” mail from Income tax department of India with clear instructions on how I can wear a “badge” to be an “inspiration” to others, both of which I read while sipping on bad tea.
This is disturbing at so many levels.
If my understanding of social media platform is correct, these digital infrastructures facilitate a common ground for people and organizations to communicate to their audiences, one to many, without actually needing them to be physically around to be heard.
Isn’t Facebook meant to get updates from family, friends, and from pages one follows? Isn’t Twitter about “what’s trending?”, what people are chirping about? Is not LinkedIn a professional network site, though I have strong reasons to say it is getting Facebookish!
It is one thing to receive an update on a social media platform and totally another to receive an official mail from an established institution to entertain a certain Silicon Valley giant.
“Update your profile picture with this frame from Income Tax India”
Like really!
Why is it so necessary to push to declare on Facebook that I pay my taxes when the obvious news of multiple tax frauds in numbers which probably exceed my Aadhar card id, are on the loose?
I do not need to “inspire” others to pay taxes, it is a duty, which I carry privately or through official help. I do not need to declare it on social media channels. I expect my data, and my tax transactions to stay with the government responsibly. And I certainly do not entertain the idea of an official government email id to endorse a social media platform no matter how harmless the approach.
If law is above all, why Facebook seems to be on the road to Indian apotheosis?
Draw a line.
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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
