Act against YouTube channel ‘auctioning women’: Priyanka Chaturvedi writes to Ashwini Vaishnaw

She also referred to recent attacks on some women journalists on social media where their pictures were uploaded online without their consent in an attempt to humiliate them.

Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Friday demanded that the government must take strict action against online platforms which demean and target women. Chaturvedi in a letter to Union minister for information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said that such acts cannot be tolerated.

Chaturvedi said that these women were mentally scarred and deleted their social media accounts. (Santosh Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

Chaturvedi was referring to the incident where a YouTube channel conducted a ‘live auction’ of women who belonged to a particular community. She said that the women ‘were rated’ based on their physical appearance and derogatory comments were also uploaded.

She also referred to recent attacks on some women journalists on social media where their pictures were uploaded online without their consent in an attempt to humiliate them. Chaturvedi said that these women were mentally scarred and deleted their social media accounts. A woman who worked in the aviation industry told news agency AFP that she is in a constant state of anger after her pictures were seen in the app. “The fourth picture was mine. They were literally auctioning me as their slave for the day. It sends chills down my spine. From that day till today, I am just in a constant state of anger,” the woman was quoted as saying by the news agency.

Chaturvedi said that cops in Delhi and Noida registered cases in both instances but due to lack of stringent laws served as a motivation for the perpetrators.

Delhi Police earlier in July registered a first information report (FIR) against unidentified persons after pictures of several Muslim women were uploaded without their consent on an app called “Sulli Deals”. The app tried to imply that these women were ‘up for sale’. ‘Sulli’ or ‘Sulla’ is a derogatory term used to refer to people belonging to the Muslim community. Delhi Police also sent a notice to source code depository platform GitHub asking it to share relevant information.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) summoned the DCP of Delhi Police cyber cell and the officer who was investigating the case seeking information if any of the perpetrators were arrested.