Hate visual: The Manipur video and the politics of gender-based atrocity in the new media ecosystem

Visuals not only mediate but they also make politics. Increasingly, we encounter events visually from around the world. A video of two women paraded naked by a group of men and subjected to violence in Manipur, India went viral in July 2023, resulting in extensive debates and discussions in the new media ecosystem. The paper situates the Manipur video as a hate visual within a larger history of the representation of violence against women across various media forms and online platforms. The paper also explores the ways in which digital platforms have come to reshape public discourse in India, where we witness polysemic, hierarchical discourses on the framing of violence against women and its delegitimisation in the media ecosystem.