The internet is a great place. It’s the ocean of knowledge from where you can learn about almost anything that exists in this world. But at the same time, it can be a horrible and cruel place. It’s just a medium and it depends on a person how they use it. Now talking about the Nepali internet scene, there have been quite a lot of things happening lately — some good and some not so good things. And we shall be talking about the ‘not so good’ things today.

The urban dictionary defines a ‘troll’ as, “A person who either intentionally or pointlessly yells and swears and insults someone with no or some purpose. Usually spawned by arguments, disagreement, or just hatred.” It further states, “They can be racist, elitest, or anything else that has to do with stereotypes.”

Now, if we ask you what’s common between Priyanka Karki, Sahana Bajracharya, Aayush Rimal and Anmol KC; the most obvious answer would be that they all have been harassed by the internet trolls in some way.  The newest victims of these trolls are Nischal Basnet and Swastima Khadka. Here’s how it all started.

On Thursday, ‘Loot’ director Nischal Basnet along with his wife Swastima Khadka, attended the premiere of ‘Jhumkee’ at Big Movies in Kamal Pokhari. The two were there to enjoy the film directed by Apil Bista that also has Nischal Basnet in a cameo role. But unfortunately, they couldn’t find two seats and hence, Basnet had to sit on the stairs.

As you can see in the picture, there seems to be an empty seat in the row behind the couple but as they wanted to sit and enjoy the film together, the film-maker chose to sit on the stairs instead. Isn’t that quite impressive?

As the organizers later found about the situation, they arranged two seats for the couple.

So, that was what happened. But as the photograph started hitting the internet, it was shared by hundreds of people — some of them calling it a beautiful gesture by the loving hubby; and on the other hand, some people started making fun. It didn’t take much for various trolls and memes to surface on the internet. And along with them, came a lot of comments which were appreciative, funny and also, offensive. And that’s when Basnet lost his cool and decided to take it to his Facebook handle to talk about the same.

The ‘Kabaddi’ actor expressed his outrage to the people who commented negatively and even used bad words for him and his wife. He even questioned them how would they feel if somebody said bad things for them and their family members.

It has become a trend lately to target public figures and make fun of them on the internet. With various Facebook pages and groups that are supposed to be entertaining their followers, often seem to be forgetting the basic courtesy of respecting someone’s personal life.

As an audience or a fan, we’re free to give feedback and even criticize their work. It’s completely okay if you tell them that they are horrible actors or film-makers, and they should absolutely respect your opinion. But it’s not okay and not ethical at all if you start talking and making fun of their personal lives. One should know their limits because it won’t take long when they might have to experience something similar and it might be too late to realize the mistake then.

You decide for yourself, how would you like to use the internet – to do something productive or to harass someone? Think well.

Cover Photo Courtesy: TNM