Rediff-ining news
Rediff seems to have successfully built upon the commonest possible business model on the internet, i.e. generating traffic by allowing readers to freely post lewd messages in response to any article on the website. The content of the article doesn’t matter. Often Rediff posts a headline with a couple of leading statements, and the readers do the rest. I have followed these comments over the last few months, sometimes in amusement, mostly in annoyance, and often in anger. I have even sent a mail to Ajit Balakrishnan (after all, he is an IIMCal Alum) expressing my disgust at the complete lack of accountability on Rediff’s part to moderate these distasteful comments. Of course, I have not received a reply.

I have two points to make. First, by taking no ownership for what appears on the site, Rediff has positioned itself as vulgar media. Their wish. Second, the Indian general public is violent, cynical, communal and lewd. Very disturbing. (note: please refer to disclaimer)

Just about every article is a case in point, with reader comments ranging from “You can never trust these Pakistanis, they can kill anyone” to “Everyone knows Inzamam is the murderer” to “These Muslims are causing riots” (read disclaimer) to open comments on women’s anatomy to Sania should not wear shorts, because (sic) “What impact on Performance that a short skirt has for winning the game of Tennis. If she wears a full pant and play, she will lose or what. I think the wearing short skirt impacts your game by 1 % or less, so I beleive that the purpose of a short skirt is just a show-off and it is not much functional to the game” .

By the way, rediff does provide readers with the option to “report abuse” but given the kind of messages that do not get reported, I shudder to think about the ones that do.

You may criticize me for visiting this site if I indeed find all this so disturbing, but the issue is not about me, it is about the inciting nature of these remarks going completely unmoderated. These could have really drastic consequences, converting opinions into facts by repetition and confirming prejudices (a la Orwell). This is especially dangerous when the comments are communal or racist or sexual (one person's obscenity is justified because apparently "everyone does it").

I would compare this situation to Channel 4's reaction during the Shilpa Shetty incident - they were clearly embarassed about appearing to support racism and did a whole lot to counter that. Rediff continues unabashed. I sincerely hope they take note and reposition themselves as responsible media.

Disclaimer: please do not accuse me of generalising - of course I know that every Indian is not like this. Also, I have not repeated the comments verbatim since I have not bothered to store them - but what I have mentioned is approximately what the messages meant.

By the way, I am not the only one unhappy with Rediff.
- posted by Rallix @ 1:11 PM