"Bulli Bai"App Outrage: A Clarion Call For Stringent Cyber Laws In India

The Indian social media and public have expressed widespread outrage against the second incident of 'auctioning' Muslim women's images on the internet. Recently, an app named Bulli Bai put pictures of Muslim women to degrade and humiliate them. On similar lines, an app called 'Sulli Deals' had posted pictures of 80 Muslim women and had tagged their images as 'deals of the day'. Sulli is a derogatory Hindi slang used by right-wing Hindu groups, and Bulli is no less pejorative. The list of women included several journalists, activists, an award-winning Bollywood actor and the mother of a university student who went missing in 2016.

Contrasting Reality On The Internet

Several thousands of women and children have fallen prey to cybercrime in India during the pandemic. However, harassing women on social media on the grounds of religion has lately been the common ground of fueling communal tensions in the country. While the internet world has become a parallel form of life in the 21st century, and people were now doing things that were unimaginable just a few years ago. While, on the one hand, the internet offers tools for better communication across the world, it also opens avenues for innovative and highly sophisticated crimes.

Women Continue To Be Scapegoats In Virtual World

More often than not, women become the soft target for any tensions brewing in the country. In the last few years, the country has witnessed hundreds of hate crimes, communal tensions and the passing of anti-conversion laws by several states. Therefore, what comes next in line is targeting the women of the opponent community to let it down. While the methods might be new, the belief is old and deeply etched into society. Women are used as scapegoats because the traditional society has always blamed them for whatever was going wrong.

If a woman voices her opinions, she is often considered untamed because she is educated. The 'women-blaming' society would even blame her for not birthing a male child for the family, even though science backs those men are more responsible for the sex of the child. In the contemporary world, educational women and workplaces rate women and provide them titles of having the most vibrant personality, most pleasing smile, a social butterfly and what not. While instances like the Bulli Bai app and Sulli deals highlight the extreme ends of how far the issue could go, one must not forget the roots of the problems.

As the virtual and real-world is evolving rapidly, people are coming up with newer ways to hunt down older targets. The virtual world makes it even easier because finding the culprit is more complicated. Nobody owns up for their actions behind their screens, and therefore, the culprits are let loose. Thus, further encouraging them to commit more cybercrime and passing a message that everyone takes such instances with a pinch of salt.

In recent times, significant protests like CAA-NRC and Farmers' protests saw women taking centre stage to call for a change. Society has always stepped up against women when trying to bring about a change. However, the latest trend of using social media as a weapon to attack and snub vociferous opinions are becoming increasingly common. While several Indians, especially women, came forward to oppose the disgusting attempts of degrading women on Twitter, the women whose names were a part of the list have receded into their cocoons.

The Failing Mechanism For Curbing Cybercrimes

The country has a vital mechanism in place to combat cybercrime,however, it is evident that those laws are falling short of the expanding innovation of the culprits. One might assume that uneducated and unemployed people come up with such disturbing ideas to instigate communities; however, the arrest of educated youth opens eyes to how deep-rooted misogynism is in the country. The Police have made the third arrest in the Bulli Bai App case, and the accused is a 21-year-old engineering student. Secondly, the Police has detained an 18-year-old woman from Uttarakhand, who is referred to as the mastermind behind the app. The 18-year-old Shweta Singh had just passed her class 12 exams and was preparing for her engineering entrances when she lost her father to COVID-19 and mother to cancer back in 2011. However, her unfortunate circumstances do not justify her targeting women from another community.

Netizens have applauded the agility shown by the Mumbai Police to catch the perpetrators; however, the scenario is drastically different in similar cases in small towns and villages of the country. Instead of seeing those who harass young women and girls as the culprits and punishing them, the girls are often schooled not to put their images on social media or roam around in 'public areas' after the sun has gone down. Even after more than 75 years of independence, women and men are not placed on the same pedestal.

Unfortunately, the online ecosystem hosts toxic hostility against women. With the recent Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals cases, the hatred has taken a perverted and religious turn. While these two cases targeted only Muslim women, others would also feel self-conscious about posting their images on social media. The conditions are grave, and those who prepare such virtual attacks against women are safer than the victims themselves.

How Can Such Incidents Be Averted?

The question arises of how the country could encounter the alarming threat of keeping all its citizens safe, both in real and virtual. First and foremost, prompt action against the culprits would send out a clear message that any infringement on the right to privacy or an attempt to destroy the modesty of any individual would have adverse consequences. For instance, the Sulli Deals incident did not make headlines and was soon brushed under the carpet. Secondly, the government and law-enforcing authorities must take charge and track down the culprits of any assaults based on gender and religion in both realities. The Bulli Bai incident has put forth that it is high time the country addresses the topsy turvy vulnerability and strengthens the law-enforcing arms of the government.

Also Read: Mumbai Police Detains 18-Yr-Old Girl Alleged Mastermind Behind 'Bulli Bai' App