Staying silent will only strengthen trolls, we need to report them: Siva Balaji

Tollywood

actor-producer and winner of the first season of Bigg Boss Telugu, Siva Balaji, recently filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad against trolls who made ‘abusive’ comments made against his wife on social media. It all started when a video of the actor was posted online and comments started pouring in; some trolls made derogatory remarks posted specifically targeting his wife, Madhumitha. Not one to take things lying down, Siva Balaji approached the cops. Speaking to Hyderabad Times, an irate Siva says, “See, trolling is not something new to me; I’ve been putting up with it for years! But the issue here is that the nasty comments were made against my wife, Madhumitha. why is she being pulled into this?! Everyone has a right to opinion. But surely, freedom of speech does not mean you have the licence to be vulgar! When we are living in a civil society, decorum should be maintained,” says Siva Balaji.

So incensed is the actor that he is planning to approach the judiciary for action against the trolls. “I’ve been advised that ignoring them (trolls) is the best solution. But I don’t agree to that. When your family is being targeted, how can you remain unaffected and stay quiet?” questions Siva.

Interestingly, in the past, he had identified some trolls and arranged a counselling session for them. They later apologised to the actor on the very medium they had abused him. But, in the nameless and faceless world of social media, how many people can be identified and marked for counselling?

“This exactly reinforces my earlier point on why I choose to do something about online harassment. It’s only when some kind of action is taken that harassers will realise that they can’t get away with this sort of behaviour. Everyone faces this problem. For various reasons, they may choose not to speak out. But imagine the kind of impact we can have if we all speak out,” he counters, adding, “I don’t
expect everyone to come together and speak out in unison but when they face this individually, they can at least then give vent to their opinion publicly. Our silence will only strengthen them.”