Social media audience for Pearle Maaney sinks, post sparks outrage – What happened?
For advertisement on our platform, do call at +91 6377460764 or email us at [email protected].
In just 48 hours, over 3,00,000 people unfollowed Pearle Maaney on Instagram. Here’s why. Pearle Maaney who is best-known as a television anchor, actor and a former contestant of Bigg Boss Malayalam became a victim of rapid de-growth on Wednesday after she posted her thoughts about the ongoing student protests. When the host posted her note about the issue, her account that stood at approximately 2.7 million followers shrunk by Monday night to almost 2.4 million. As news spread, her YouTube and Facebook accounts also faced a similar blow as she was unceremoniously boycotted. For somebody whose life depends on digital footprint and online visibility, a drop of that scale in two days will be nothing short of a huge jolt. For the record, people were not just scrolling past her updates anymore. They were ‘unfollowing’.
What Pearle Maaney actually wrote about the student protests?
The entire controversy erupted following a four-page handwritten letter by Maaney on the raging student protests that have been organised over perceived irregularities in the NEET examination and on police action. Maaney in her lengthy post spoke out about what she called “heartbreaking” times. What agitated students the most were her suggestions.
Maaney advised students to put their lives first above all causes.
“I wish for your safety more than anything else. If your life is in danger, just go back home, because no cause is worth more than your life,” read a sentence. She further advised young students not to be swayed away by complex issues, adding, “I want to advise the young generation, please put your life on the forefront. No matter which path you choose you will reach where you need to be.
You deserve a good educational system but please make sure the original intent of your movement is not lost in discussions.”
To Maaney, her post may have read like a benign appeal. However, for young students risking their lives in street protests, her words sounded almost dismissive and regressive.
Pearle Maaney called out, faces massive social media backlash, switches off comments – Why?
The swift online reaction was followed by a near all-out revolt within hours in Maaney’s comment section. Many netizens called out the “rich person mentality” and how Maaney was “out of touch” with the realities of young aspiring Indians. One commenter received over thousands of likes for calling Maaney ‘richer-than-rich’ and attributing her words to her ‘silver- spoon’ upbringing, saying how she can ‘never understand what it means to chase for a marks’. People criticised her call for students to go home, saying how it would ‘kill’ the momentum of a student movement. In her defence, Maaney initially blocked comments on the post where she discussed the student protests. Maaney who is a huge celebrity and TV show hostess changed the caption of her post that initially stated her intention to call for peace. However, instead of de-escalating the situation, she declared the “comment section of a public profile is a display of one’s own expression”. As people continued to flood her old pictures with angry remarks, rumors spread that she was blocking people for disagreeing. “If we cannot comment on her protest-related-post, why not comment on our family picture, right?” asked an ironic social media user.
Pearle Maaney gets into war of words with father of well-known director: ‘Didn’t raise a coward like yours’
The heat escalated with Pearle engaging in a fiery war of words with parents of well-known director. Pearle posted on Instagram Stories about how her post “in need of trigger warning”. She sarcastically attacked a “failed director” for writing a “10-page script on 4 pages and add[ing] chili powder on that to make it look like the worst possible content to consume”. Netizens quickly connected the dots to Sibi Malayil and accused Pearle. Sibi Malayil’s son Joe Sibi Malayil, a well-known technician, responded to Maaney’s posts. “To Pearle Maaney Ma’am (who doesn’t remember people): Please check your status. My Father didn’t raise any kid to act like you. This message is for you that not any film director or his son will go on a script based on the hatred or jealousy you show to others. And, not someone like you. Since this is a public post, do you mind sending an apology letter via DMs within 24 hours?” He went on to tag his father and Maaney and added that Maaney, who had “millions of followers,” couldn’t “make an excuse on being lazy and not reading my father’s seven-slide critiqueyou said you were not there for.” He added, “Unlike your Father who must have brought you up in different environment, he didn’t bring a coward.”
‘My favourite colour is saffron’, Pearle Maaney pushes the fight to politics – and draws outrage again.
As outrage grew over her personal attacks against critics, Pearle made a more damaging comment, dragging politics into the fray. While resisting further requests for her to alter her opinion, Maaney made her boldest assertion, telling her critics how “no one gives freedom to anyone. We ourselves create freedom. We all have our own right and own opinions. Also not anyone’s puppet or slaves”. At that moment, she went further, mentioning, “My favorite colour is saffron.
We always see it on Indian flag with lots of pride.” While it can be seen as a simple statement on color preference, given the backdrop of national events and prevailing debates surrounding saffron color it didn’t escape attention from people that this was also an open demonstration of her political leanings and affinity towards the Bharatiya Janata Party. Moreover, just around that time, she shared a statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi concerning fast-tracking investigations in NEET leakage issues, adding another layer to the burgeoning political commentary around her stances. For frustrated student protestors and others, this was the culmination of events pointing towards her aligning with the government’s narrative against the ongoing peaceful demonstrations, with many labelling her a government stooge used to shut down student voices using her social media reach. The backlash reached a crescendo later, forcing Pearle to delete both of her latest stories about the filmmaker and the colour of saffron, even attempt to nuance her views in subsequent posts. However, once an influencer’s true opinions have come to surface, deleting a post rarely assuages the masses.
Multiple YouTubers made ‘reaction videos’ tearing apart her arguments and her subsequent actions, with many highlighting how she resorted to deleted content only after seeing the de-growth numbers spiraling and making more people question her authenticity. Older clips from her days in Bigg Boss Malayalam, including infamous arguments with other housemates like Ranjini Haridas, resurfaced. For a significant chunk of online communities, Pearle Maaney has now become an example of the deep disconnect celebrities can share with everyday citizens-a sentiment amplified when an influencer asks struggling students to withdraw from peaceful protests during a national crisis and when further challenged, resorts to political hints and attacks. When it all backfires and they’re shown clearly to be on the side of those making life of youngsters hell, then as they say, all the likes go away, and only the unfollows flood in.
