In today’s world, you don’t need facts to ruin someone’s life. All you need is a trending hashtag.
Remember Rhea Chakraborty? The young actress who suddenly went from Sushant Singh Rajput’s girlfriend to “murder suspect,” “gold-digger,” and “drug queen” in a matter of days? The moment news broke about Sushant’s tragic death in 2020, the media didn’t stop to ask “what happened?” Instead, it went straight for: “Who can we blame—and how fast can we go viral doing it?”
What followed was not reporting. It was a witch hunt, and it didn’t take place in courts—it played out on Twitter, on primetime news debates, and in every comment section flooded with #JusticeForSushant.
Was there any actual proof against Rhea? No. But who needs proof when you’ve got a good story? She was called everything from a manipulator to a witch (literally—“chudail” trended online), and even accused of doing black magic. No one paused to question the logic. It was emotional, it was loud, and it was brutal. She was arrested, humiliated, and thrown into jail—all to feed a narrative that had already decided she was guilty.
And when the CBI quietly filed a closure report saying there was no foul play? Silence. No apology. No breaking news banners. Just crickets.
Fast forward to 2025, and we’re still doing the same thing. Apoorva Mukhija, aka The Rebel Kid, the social media influencer who went viral after a controversial episode of India’s Got Latent. One comment on stage turned into days of hate, trolling, and death threats.
In her video titled “Till I Say It Is,” Apoorva shared she received rape and acid attack threats through DMs. Someone even found her home address. Why? Because she called out an “extremely inappropriate comment” made by a guy on the show, in front of a live audience. That’s it.
Instead of questioning the guy’s behavior, the internet decided she was the villain. Classic.
Here’s the truth no one likes to admit: A digital witch hunt doesn’t need evidence—it just needs engagement.
The angrier the mob, the higher the views, and once the internet points its finger, real lives become collateral damage.
What’s worse? We, the audience, are part of the problem. We scroll, we share, we post our hot takes. We feed the machine.
But here’s the thing, Gen Z and millennials—we grew up with the internet. We know how viral culture works. So why are we still falling for the same pattern?
Where are the trending hashtags when someone is proven innocent? Where’s the media outrage when a life is destroyed by false accusations, internet troll? Where’s the complain and FIRs when a girl is getting threats of rape, death and acid attacks?
Rhea spent a month in jail for doing… what, exactly? Loving someone? Apoorva was painted as a villain for taking a stand. These aren’t just stories—they’re people. And they deserved better.
It’s time we ask for accountability—not just from the media, but from ourselves.
Because if we don’t, the next witch hunt will be just a scroll away.
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