There are many topics, pictures, videos, and trolls that mark their prominence in social media on a daily basis. Of these, pictures and trolls get circulated the most on networks like Twitter and Facebook as they get re-tweeted and shared immediately due to their witty and sarcastic nature. From serious issues like refugee crisis and Chennai floods, to lighter topics like Rahul Gandhi’s speech notes, social media has sucessfully criticised and empathised whenever necessary. Here are a few of the pictures that went viral on social networks.
Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old boy, made international headlines after his body was washed ashore on September 2, 2015. The distraught Syrian father was unable to hold on to his wife and two sons after their boat capsized. He learnt about the
death of his family members only the next morning (September 3, 2015). Twelve migrants lost their lives the same day when two boats capsized, but the tiny lifeless body of Aylan became a crying plea to the world, to sit up and take notice of the massive migrant crisis brweing in Middle-East.
Floods have come to an end in Chennai and the city has slowly returned to normalcy. PM Modi visited the city and made an aerial survey of the same. He also offered an immediate release of Rs 1000 crore for relief and rehabilitation. In spite of this, the Press Information Bureau (PIB), tweeted a doctored picture of the PM taking a look at the flood-hit areas from the helicopter. Quite obviously, Twitter expoloded and reactions to the photoshopped floooded social media. Somuch so that PIB had to take it down from their website. They did not deny the photo being doctored and apologised for the same once memes started making rounds on social media.
White and gold, or black and blue? If you faced this question this year, you know what #TheDress is all about! The picture of a dress purchased for a wedding went viral on social media and people went crazy, trying to guess what colour it was. Debate on the colour of the dress was picked up by fashion bloggers on Tumblr and later picked pace on other social media platforms. It went to an extent where celebrities started tweeting about it. While Kim Kardashian saw white and gold, Kanye West saw blue and black. Scientific explanations were provided as to how a human being sees colour. The explanation was narrowed down to strange lighting which caused an optical illusion. #TheDress turned out to be blue and black and that put an end to all the social media drama!
Petra Laszlo, the Hungarian camerawoman drew international ire after she was caught on camera tripping a migrant while he was trying to flee from police. She was also seen filming the incident—as the boy fell off his arms as the man tumbled to the ground and fell on top of the kid. She was fired from the channel she worked for, soon after the video went viral on social networks. Laszlo might have apologised for her actions but that is not keeping her from suing the refugee. She also lashed out at Facebook for failing to remove negative and threatening messages directed towards her, instead banning groups that were supporting her actions.
The Indian flag was seen hoisted upside down— with the green on top and saffron at the bottom— during PM Narendra Modi’s rendezvous with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit. The tricolour was in the background of Modi and Abe’s customary handshake at the summit and was hoisted next to Japan’s flag. Although official sources (on anonymity) have commented that it was an “inadvertent mistake”, social media did not fail to register its share of criticism of the incident.
The photograph of a scared Syrian girl from the refugee camps, made rounds on social media and broke the hearts of many. The girl, who was later doubted to be a boy, “surrendered” to the Turkish photographer, Osman Sagirli, when she mistook the camera for a gun. The image shows her frozen in fear with her arms held up and lips tightly pursed. The image was re-tweeted more than 14,000 times and prompted an emotional response from social media users.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was caught on camera carrying notes for his speech by a photojournalist. The contents of the notes are clearly visible in the cheat-sheet and almost all of the points there featured in his speech. The first point which featured exactly in the speech reads "Log PM Modi ko sunna chahte hai, woh unki rai janna chahte hai, Modigate par, Vyapam par (People want to hear Prime Minister Modi, they want to know his opinion, on Modigate, on Vyapam). " Twitterarti did not waste this opportunity to troll the Congress vice-president.