On July 31, The News Minute had published an article about Padma Priya, the new ‘social activist’ in town, in which it had defended the fake news peddled by the lady as ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘democratic right to dissent’.
The TikTok beautician-turned-social activist was called out for her absurd claims about the draft Environmental Impact Assement 2020 (draft EIA 2020) by many on social media. In her video she had made baseless claims saying that the draft EIA 2020 would spell the doomsday for the entire country and that the city of Chennai would go under water and Tamil Nadu would turn into a desert.
She had even gone to the extent of saying that no one would be able to question even if a nuclear plant were to burst.
Her video had become viral sending the entire Tamil social media into a frenzy. Following this, many others on social media came up with rebuttal videos that busted the lies peddled by her. In response to this, she had deleted the earlier video and came out with another playing the victim card.
In her new video, she laments how she became the focus instead of the draft EIA 2020 and added that she deleted the video as she faced social pressure.
“You guys don’t even leave celebrities like Surya sir or Karthi sir for their posts and ask if they are social activists.. Think of how much pressure a woman would have received! Think of how the family and friends would have been scared. Think of the mental pressure it would have caused to a woman. The people who target me never think about this. That is why I deleted the video. Yes, I deleted the video because I had social pressures! So what?”, she says in her video.
While it is wrong to ask for a woman’s personal details on social media, it is important to note that she had put out a video that stirred a hornet’s nest by fear mongering.
She goes on to say that she had read draft and then raised the questions as a member of the public. “Don’t I have the right to voice my opinion? What kind of a democratic country is this?” she says.
She clarified that she is not affiliated to any political group.
The new woke ‘social activist’ asked those who questioned her ludicrous claims to answer the ‘questions posed by her’ and not ‘target her and use her for their own fame’.
She also says why she is being called to debate on the issue and not the experts immersed in this field. “Are you scared?”, she asks.
It is to be noted that several other Youtubers, social media personalities and politicians have participated in debates and put out response videos to so-called ‘experts’ like Piyush Manush, Nityanand Jayaraman, etc.
The News Minute article that had covered an article on Padma Priya’s latest video called her ‘one of the critical voices on the subject.’ The article brushed the fake news peddled by the lady under the carpet and went about calling it an attack on “freedom of expression” and “right to dissent”.
As usual, The News Minute gave the ‘misogyny’ spin to deflect from the actual issue. The Editor-in-Chief Dhanya Rajendran also tweeted defending the fake news peddled by her saying that “this is a democracy”.
And she says correctly. This is a democracy. If you want to counter her facts, do that. Don't use your social media and political clout to target someone or drive harassers to their time line. Note to @BjpKalyaan
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) July 31, 2020
Dear TNM, please do not make heroes out of zeroes and glorify fear mongering fake news peddlers as saviours.
And no, “freedom of expression” and “right to dissent” does not give the sanction to fear mongering and peddling fake news.