Social media toxicity is a term that could become one of the highlights of 2020 — for all the wrong reasons, of course. The otherwise calm, fan-friendly content shared by celebrities has been replaced by a toxic war of words — the most recent being the Twitter spat between actors Kangana Ranaut and Diljit Dosanjh. The latter called out one of Ranaut’s tweets about the ongoing farmer protests, and what followed was a rather vitriolic exchange between the duo, with Ranaut calling Dosanjh filmmaker Karan Johar’s “paltu” (pet).

Are such exchanges leading to never before toxicity online? “Toxicity exists on social media in any case. People like Kangana are adding to it, that’s all,” says filmmaker Hansal Mehta. “There are two types of people. One is a toxic person, and the other is trying to ward off and defend themselves or an entire community against these toxic (people). Unless these toxic celebs don’t stop, this toxicity will not end,” he adds.

Actor Taapsee Pannu, however, feels sometimes, in the heat of the moment, these things can happen. “A celebrity is not someone to be put on a pedestal and worshipped. We are human beings who have emotions,” she says, adding that everyone has a different way of venting out. “When such exchanges happen, you can only go through them, see for yourself who is the real person behind this... and see the more human side to celebrities,” she says.

Producer Pritish Nandy doesn’t see why an argument should reach a level “where one side abuses the other”. “The side which is aggressive has already lost, it means it has no case. Whoever has a case argues, but whoever shouts, screams and rants… it has never been more obvious than on social media,” he feels.

Doesn’t it become more alarming when celebs engage in such arguments, considering they have the power to influence millions? “I think this happens when people reach a stage where they either feel they have to come out and speak, or because things have turned bad, or when people are told to speak by their government body. These are two alternatives,” says Nandy.

Many came out in support of Dosanjh, one such being actor Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, who’s currently shooting for a project with the singer-actor. “It wasn’t toxicity, what he (Dosanjh) did, it was more to curb. That’s why he started saying what he did, to the kind of things she (Ranaut) was saying about farmer protests,” he says.