The Editors Guild of India has demanded that the government take immediate steps to break and end such a misogynistic and degrading digital environment and a thorough investigation should be done to identify and punish the culprits and institutions involved.
Screenshot of the Bully Buy platform. (courtesy: twitter)
New Delhi: Condemning the continuing online harassment of women journalists, the Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Tuesday demanded that the government take immediate steps to end such “misogynistic and degrading” digital environment.
It claimed that most of these attacks were targeted at journalists who are vocal critics of the government and the ruling party.
In addition, the Editors Guild, citing a recently published investigative report in The Wire, urged the Supreme Court to order an inquiry into the ‘Tech Fog App’, which states that abusive tweets have been circulated through the app. Women journalists are being harassed.
The organization has made this request in view of allegations that influential people associated with the ruling party may be involved in this episode.
After two years of investigation, The Wire, with the help of some sources, has unearthed a secret app ‘Tech Fog’, which has been used by political people affiliated to the ruling party to artificially increase the popularity of the party, harass its critics and all The major social media platforms are largely used to divert public perceptions.
“The Editors Guild of India condemns the continuing online harassment of women journalists, including targeted and organized online trolling as well as threats of sexual abuse,” the Editors Guild said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Editors Guild said in its statement, ‘This is a mockery of all democratic norms and a violation of the law.’
The Guild said that the latest examples of such organized trolling and harassment are news portals. the wire have emerged from the investigation conducted by.
The Guild also took note of recent instances of alleged online auctions of Muslim women on the ‘Bully Buy’ app, which also targeted journalists critical of the government.
“What is even more disturbing is that most of these attacks target journalists who have been vocal critics of the current government and the ruling party,” the Editors Guild said. Such attacks and threats are attempts to silence them. It is a mockery of all democratic norms and a violation of law.
It said that though law enforcing agencies have arrested people running such apps, further investigation is required so that all those involved in such heinous acts can be brought to justice.
“The Editors Guild demands that the government take immediate steps to break and end this misogynistic and abusive digital environment and conduct a thorough investigation to identify and punish the perpetrators and entities involved,” the statement said. .’
“Furthermore, in view of allegations that influential people associated with the ruling party may be involved in the Tech Fog App case, the Guild demands that the Supreme Court take cognizance of the matter and order an inquiry into the matter,” the Guild said.
It is worth noting that a few days ago hundreds of Muslim women were tampered with their photographs and uploaded for ‘auction’ on the ‘Bully Bai’ app without their permission.
Based on a complaint lodged by one of the women targeted by the app, the Cyber Police Station (West) of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch had registered an FIR on January 1 against unidentified persons who developed the app and some Twitter handles reported it. Content was disseminated.
The app was hosted by the US-based open-source software platform GitHub on December 31, 2021, in which at least 100 Muslim women were posted online with vulgar remarks of molested images. So far four arrests have been made in the case. All the four accused are students.
Mumbai Police has arrested 19-year-old girl Shweta Singh from Uttarakhand, 21-year-old engineering student Vishal Kumar Jha from Bengaluru, 21-year-old Mayank Rawal from Uttarakhand in the case. Whereas, 21-year-old Neeraj Vishnoi, who is being told by the Delhi Police as the main conspirator of the case, has been arrested from Jorhat in Assam.
After the arrest of Vishnoi, the Delhi Police had claimed that he was the main conspirator in the case and with the arrest of the matter was resolved.
(with input from news agency language)
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