Muslim women ‘auctioned’ online, FIR filed, app blocked
After a journalist tweeted that her doctored photos were uploaded on a webpage along with objectionable comments “aimed at insulting Muslim women”, the Delhi Police registered an FIR, according to media reports.
“We have received a complaint of a woman journalist alleging she is being targeted by an unidentified group of people on an app using GitHub by the name of “Bulli Bai”. An FIR has been registered at the cyber police station of the Southeast district,” said a senior Delhi Police officer, reported the IE. Esha Pandey, DCP (Southeast), said a legal action has been initiated.
Information and Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the perpetrator’s account had been blocked by GitHub and police and Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) were investigating the matter. “GitHub confirmed blocking the user this morning itself. CERT and Police authorities are coordinating further action,” he tweeted on Sunday.
Taking to Twitter, a journalist, who is one of the women named in the app, claimed that a group called “Bulli Bai” was created like “Sulli Deals” on GitHub, which would collect photos of Muslim women from their social media accounts and encourage people to participate in their “auction”, reported India Today.
The Bulli Bai has come six months after the derogatory “Sulli Deals” site had surfaced.
A complainant stated: “I was shocked to find out this morning that a website… had a doctored picture of me in an improper, unacceptable and clearly lewd context. I am often the target of online trolls and this seems to be the next step in such harassment. This needs immediate action as the same is clearly designed to harass me and other similarly situated independent women and journalists.”
She further wrote: “The term bulli bai itself seems disrespectful and the content of this website is clearly aimed at insulting Muslim women as the derogatory term bulli is used exclusively for Muslim women and the entire website seems to have been designed with the intent of embarrassing and insulting Muslim women. The term bulli of the day further objectifies and dehumanises women.”
“As a law-abiding citizen of this country and as a Muslim woman, I am deeply disturbed by the alleged tweet, which is headlined as ‘your bulli bai of the day’ and is accompanied by the doctored photograph. Social media being a form of public expression cannot be used to demean and derogate women in general and Muslim women in particular by misogynist sections of society. This is nothing short of online harassment and the referred tweet for criminal action,” she states.
“The github is violent, threatening and intending to create a feeling of fear and shame in my mind as well as in the minds of women in general, and the Muslim community, whose women are being targeting (targeted) in this hateful manner. In fact, this website has been targeting other Muslim women as well. It is indeed disappointing to see the impunity with which such hate mongers continue to target Muslim women, without fear of any sanction whatsoever,” she writes, reported the IE.
