Include sensitisation material on abuse of Tamil Brahmins in Content Guidelines
The Issue
The Tamil Brahmin community in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is small. In the past 100 years, the community has been targeted for racial attacks with hate speech by the leaders of the Dravidian movement, which believes that Tamil Brahmins are outside interlopers of a genetically different race. As an example, in 1937 a leader of the Dravidian movement (and former Chief Minister of the state) Mr.Annadurai compared Tamil Brahmins to Jews, and praised Hitler.
In Tamilnadu, the present ruling party, DMK was founded by Mr.Annadurai mentioned above. The party's spokesperson recently called a political opponent a "Brahmin dog"
With the advent of social media, this hate speech has increased to a crescendo. Many of these violate the content policies of Facebook and Twitter, but Facebook and Twitter content moderators (who are probably also from the state of Tamilnadu, and hence influenced by the above ideology) have refused to take down these posts in Tamil or English.
Here is a link that documents a widely circulated image in Twitter and Facebook which is not only inaccurate, but puts Brahmins at the centre of a conspiracy to ban bull fighting in the state.
The broader Tamilnadu community, while tolerant, has not been sensitive that this kind of speech is hate speech. Instead it is now considered a part of legitimate political activity to threaten, generalize and dehumanize Brahmins online, while conspiracy theories abound that associate every unpopular policy (such as the NEET test and ban on Bull-fighting) to the secret hands of Brahmins, as seen in the above links.
Therefore, we request that Facebook, India and Twitter, India include sensitisation material about generalization/dehumanization ( as is done for Islamophobia) specific to Tamil Brahmins in the content guidelines on hate speech.
These may specifically include:
- Calling a Brahmin as "பார்ப்பான்" or a Brahmin woman as "பாப்பாத்தி" which is equal to the N-word in the US
- Writing that Brahmins control media or government
- Calling Brahmins as cow urine drinkers
- Calling Brahmins as interlopers (வந்தேறிகள்)
- Calling for chasing "Aryans" out of Tamilnadu
- Denigrating the Tamil Brahmin dialect (அவாள், இவாள்)
Please make the internet safe from hate speech.
Petition Closed
The Issue
The Tamil Brahmin community in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is small. In the past 100 years, the community has been targeted for racial attacks with hate speech by the leaders of the Dravidian movement, which believes that Tamil Brahmins are outside interlopers of a genetically different race. As an example, in 1937 a leader of the Dravidian movement (and former Chief Minister of the state) Mr.Annadurai compared Tamil Brahmins to Jews, and praised Hitler.
In Tamilnadu, the present ruling party, DMK was founded by Mr.Annadurai mentioned above. The party's spokesperson recently called a political opponent a "Brahmin dog"
With the advent of social media, this hate speech has increased to a crescendo. Many of these violate the content policies of Facebook and Twitter, but Facebook and Twitter content moderators (who are probably also from the state of Tamilnadu, and hence influenced by the above ideology) have refused to take down these posts in Tamil or English.
Here is a link that documents a widely circulated image in Twitter and Facebook which is not only inaccurate, but puts Brahmins at the centre of a conspiracy to ban bull fighting in the state.
The broader Tamilnadu community, while tolerant, has not been sensitive that this kind of speech is hate speech. Instead it is now considered a part of legitimate political activity to threaten, generalize and dehumanize Brahmins online, while conspiracy theories abound that associate every unpopular policy (such as the NEET test and ban on Bull-fighting) to the secret hands of Brahmins, as seen in the above links.
Therefore, we request that Facebook, India and Twitter, India include sensitisation material about generalization/dehumanization ( as is done for Islamophobia) specific to Tamil Brahmins in the content guidelines on hate speech.
These may specifically include:
- Calling a Brahmin as "பார்ப்பான்" or a Brahmin woman as "பாப்பாத்தி" which is equal to the N-word in the US
- Writing that Brahmins control media or government
- Calling Brahmins as cow urine drinkers
- Calling Brahmins as interlopers (வந்தேறிகள்)
- Calling for chasing "Aryans" out of Tamilnadu
- Denigrating the Tamil Brahmin dialect (அவாள், இவாள்)
Please make the internet safe from hate speech.
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Petition created on 29 May 2021