When social media turns sting forum

Social media has given a voice to the common man, allowing him to bypass the corridors of power and post statuses or pictures of injustices or harassment. Recently a number of Twitter handles and social pages have sprung up to document racist, sexist or abusive remarks made against individuals, women in particular. More and more individuals are harnessing the power of the Internet to post screen shots, mobile clicks, videos or statuses showing or naming perpetrators of crimes, atrocities, corruption or written abuses in retaliation to social media posts.

Videos of eve teasers being beaten up by girls or a crowd are becoming frequent. Has public shaming become an easier and convenient route than the long drawn out process of waiting for justice to be meted out the traditional way?

Hyderabad-based activist Sunitha Krishnan’s ‘Shame the Rapist campaign’ raised a lot of eyebrows and caught national attention for the nature of the videos that had the victims’ faces blurred but not the perpetrators’. Debates and counter debates ensued that questioned the ethical nature of the videos and the right of the victims.

Sunitha answers, “There has been a lot of reactions, both good and bad, but the reaction is a very strong indicator that somewhere something has bothered people.”

Speaking about using the social media route Sunitha says, “Social media is one route that ties and links people and is a space where people from all strata of society converge. I have done it with the intention of creating social consciousness on this particular issue but that is not my only method. I have gone to the government, the Supreme Court and the CBI is investigating the cases. If I had not used the method I did, I would not have reached this stage.”

She adds that if she had taken the videos to the Cyber Cell first, they would perhaps have tagged it as factious and the matter would have ended there. She asserts, “As an activist I am not foolish, nor was it a knee-jerk reaction. I chose a method where I created social consciousness on social media and then went to the next level of meeting the government; and when I did not get a good response I went to the Supreme Court.”

Sally Kannan, a social activist and animal activist had to resort to posting screen shots of a site that propagated child pornography. She explains, “I came across this Twitter handle called Chinna Pennu Veriyargal that had pictures of small kids which would have been private photos where the family members were cut out. I went to their Facebook page and was shocked to see pictures of innocent children with vulgar comments from perverts. There were even brothers sharing pictures of their sisters. I took screen shots of this and put it on my FB wall asking people to report this site. My post was shared and many reported it and the page was deleted by FB. I then took the screen shots and contacted the Thiruvananthapuram Cyber Cell who referred me to the Chennai Cyber wing and within a week’s time the man behind the page was arrested.”

“I now have people sending me links of such sites and asking me how to stop it, so there is a positive outcome.”

The stray dog issue in Kerala saw animal activists and the common man locking horns. The Facebook walls of some animal activists saw the choicest of abuses. Saudamini Shrotriya, a lawyer speaks about her experience, “Just because some of my friends were speaking about the stray dog issue in a positive light, their FB pages were hacked and all their personal details, chats and pictures were posted in a forum. The hacking was done by the Cyber Mallu Soldiers and I took screen shots of the hacked pages and posted it on my wall. Soon after, I started getting veiled threats and abuses and I started changing my password every three days. I spoke to the Cyber Cell, who wanted the affected parties to directly contact them.”   

There is, however, a word of caution though from the experts. N. Vinaykumar of the HI-Tech Crime Enquiry Cell says, “Legally you are not supposed to take a picture without a person’s consent and post it on a private space.”