New Delhi, Feb. 21 -- Some stuff on social media is too disturbing to be put down to just a strange sense of humour. Take a recent video clip titled "ASMR: Illegal Deportation Flight," a 41-second recording posted by the White House on its Instagram and X accounts. It depicts US deportees being patted down, shackled and boarded on a plane. But the point of it, as the title suggests, is the soundtrack-the heavy cling-clang of chains, in all its jarring menace.

ASMR is short for autonomous sensory meridian response, a sensation evoked by audio or visual stimuli that typically starts on one's scalp and goes down the spine. It can be induced by a whisper, for example, and its tingling can soothe nerves, as many ASMR videos online promise.

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