360 Degree: The cruelty of rape videos

I will forever remember February 6, of 2015. A young man had sent me two videos via WhatsApp. The clips were nauseating. One showed a girl of about 14 being gang-raped by eight men and the other had a woman being raped by one person, while another was busy recording the crime. What scared me was the obvious relish with which the men were committing a heinous crime. More importantly, they were also showing off. My immediate response was to question the impunity with which crimes had been committed and even, “showcased”. The anger in me led to the #ShameTheRapist Campaign within the next 24 hours. Although I had every intention of taking it to the police, I did not want to do it quietly. I wanted the rapists to realise that not everybody in the world supported such acts. In the days that followed, the campaign triggered nation-wide fury. People from all over started sending me such videos that were being circulated online. So, within 48 hours, I had nine more horrifying clips. Armed with these, I approached the Ministry of Home Affairs. But by the time the ministry geared up to respond, I was already restless.

I then sent the nine videos to the Chief Justice of India, who took immediate note of them and took my attached letter as a suo motto petition in the Supreme Court. My first recommendation asked for a CBI probe into the videos. The clips seemed to have originated from the North or East of the country but I had received it from people in the South too. That meant the clips had been shared across borders — and required a central agency to probe their origins. I also discovered there was a huge ‘consumer base’ for such videos in our country. The most common medium to circulate such clips was WhatsApp. Offline, these were available at several shops selling pornography. But what was even more shocking was the fact that certain websites had a special list for “rape sex”. I’m not puritanical but I have seen how consumption of pornography has generated a demand for paid sex which, in many ways, has increased sex trafficking of young girls and children. I know this because I fight sex trafficking. The people who consume child porn especially, are the main buyers of children in the flesh trade — 45 per cent of those in flesh trade are children. Also, I simply couldn’t understand the human condition in this one particular context — how could someone draw happiness or satisfaction from watching a sexual assault being committed? And there’s even a huge demand for such violent videos?

Was it because of a lack of deterrents?

It was appalling to note that service providers or intermediaries such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Google, Yahoo and others were fully aware of the presence of such videos on their platforms. And they were distant from any form of accountability. At the very maximum, they were resorting to simply blocking or deleting the content. There is a lack of pre-emptive measures and early-stage safeguards — no automatic response. That these are actual crimes being committed didn’t seem to bother them a bit. I went back to the Supreme Court and revised my recommendations... requesting that all service providers be made accountable for such content and making it mandatory for them to report to designated enforcement authorities the presence of such content.  We also requested for an active Sex Offenders Register, which will be a repository of all convicted sex offenders in the country. The need for a central agency to investigate such videos was already a part of the common consensus in the court. It was also, in principle, agreed that a mechanism should be created for citizens to report such videos anonymously, without becoming a complainant.

The journey has spanned two years. I found the Government of India completely with us at every step supporting each of the recommendations we made. So in real sense, there was no difference of opinion in the courtroom. But the scene has slightly changed after we have impleaded all the service-providers in the matter. Yahoo in its affidavit strongly objected to taking any accountability for such content. The others also had reservations about the right method to block such matter. But in any case, all of us... whether it is the judiciary, the government, the corporate giants or civil society... agree on one important matter. That commission of such heinous offences, circulating videos of sex crimes and consumption of such videos is unacceptable. The next few months will tell us how we, collectively, have responded to such a challenge. The first step has been taken — a central agency is being set up to investigate such videos. And I hope the next step will create the required deterrence… making sure that every individual, across the country, will not just think twice before committing such an offense but will never, ever use technology to force the victim into silence and humiliation. Because even if the victim doesn’t report the crime, there will be an eye watching out for the helpless... and that sense of impunity will end.

The writer is an activist and and co-founder of Prajwala, an organisation that rescues and rehabilitates victims of sex-trafficking