BookMyShow, an Indian app that facilitates ticket bookings for every variety of entertainment, has fallen victim to netizens’ wrath for promoting a “controversial” artist, Hussain Haidry, by announcing his upcoming show.
Hussain Haidry is an Indian poet and lyricist who rose to fame after his poem Hindustani Musalman (Indian Muslim) went viral on social media. The artist has been accused of “inciting hatred” by making objectionable comments against the majority Hindu community in the past, as he previously shared posts that used terms such as "Hindu Terrorists" and "state-sponsored Hindu terrorism" that were widely circulated on social media platforms.
#UninstallBookMyShow is trending on Twitter India, with tweeples calling on users to boycott and uninstall the app. From the general public to politicians from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, people are showing their disapproval for the app’s promotion of his shows.
A few Twitterati opined that the app is promoting a Hinduphobe and pledged never to use the application in their lifetime. Other stated that they would urge 10 other people to uninstall the app, and shared his “objectionable” tweets of the past.
There was a similar outcry against the popular multimedia messaging app Snapchat after its CEO Evan Spiegel had allegedly remarked that "poor" India is not its target market.
"This app is only for rich people and I don't want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain,” Spiegel had purportedly said. As a result, Indians uninstalled the app in large numbers and its ratings dropped sharply.
As a 21-day coronavirus lockdown is in place in the country, artists are increasingly using the internet and applications like BookMyShow to promote their upcoming shows and keep up with their work.