It can be a source of amusement when you stumble upon social media accounts that share your
first name and surname. In Goa, in the case of DJ Ajit Pai, one of the
country’s most popular DJs, it was more than amusing to say the least. This
case of mistaken identity led to Ajit facing extensive abuse on his various
online platforms, all due to the fact that the trolls assumed his social media
accounts called AjitPaiOfficial was that of Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai. The fact that there was ‘official’ in the name led to
the confusion.
In the US, over the last two months, the
time that Ajit started receiving such online abuse, his namesake, the FCC
Chairman, was the centre of a controversial campaign to remove established net
neutrality rules. Pai soon became the face of the public’s ire as it stood to
lose access unregulated internet in America.
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Last week, when the FCC finally voted to
repeal landmark net neutrality rules, scores of Americans and others took to
the internet to vent their anger and to express their opposition to the
decision.
Only in doing so, many of them started
tagging the wrong Ajit, Goa’s Ajit.
Talk about perfect timing, while Ajit was
gearing up for the busiest time of the year with his upcoming gigs and shows,
he had to wake up to a barrage of hate and criticism online. That’s not all. He
even received death threats and calls from America.
“It was crazy, as I would get like 30-40
calls. I did respond to the initial few and as soon as I explained, they would
apologise. Not all were abusive, some were civil too and once they were told it
was the wrong person, they go it. What was funny though, was how many of them
did not even seem to know the net neutrality issue properly so those
conversations were quite weird, “said Ajit.
It was Ajit’s personal stance on the issue
that may have added to the mix and caused a storm in the US as well.
“For any post of mine on any of the accounts, there would be an
instant reaction from these people just telling me why they are against net
neutrality, etc. I would try and explain to them that were speaking to the
wrong person. But one time, I jokingly wrote I am for net neutrality and I
wrote for in capitals, “explained Ajit.
This comment was picked by various internet portals and sites in
the US with talk about how the FCC Chairman was now reconsidering his decision
to push for repealing net neutrality and this went viral.
“It was then that reporters from the US got in touch with me and
this was in US time, so around 4 am in the morning India time. They got in
touch with me via my website and by morning the news about the mistaken
identity was out,” added Ajit.
While his website has crashed daily ever since even though he
has increased its bandwidth multiple times over the last week, now the kind of
messages he gets is about the mistaken identity after the news broke out
online.
When asked if this was frustrating given that he needed his
social media platforms to promote his shows etc, Ajit said he took it in his
stride and over time learnt how to deal with it, or ignore the trolls. He
pointed out that changing his account name on social media (all his accounts
use the same name) was out of the question as that would make him lose a lot of
the online presence he had built for himself over the years. His website is
still recovering from the online storm and a jump in number of hits – from
hundreds a day to a couple of thousand a day.
While he still gets around 18 calls a day, compared to the 30-40
from a week ago, Ajit said it is quite hilarious to see some of the comments as
now whenever he posts anything online, he gets two sets of people commenting –
one who are still abusing him, mistaking him for the FCC Chairman, and the
second are now his defenders who take on the trolls and explain their mistake to
them.
“I have never experienced something like this. I have heard of
Ajit Pai and how we share the same name but then there are so many such cases
online. Who would have ever thought it would reach this level,” said Ajit.
It
may take some time for Ajit’s social media to return to his just music and the
kind of comments he is used to, fans and followers enjoying his work and music.
