Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha/File)
The government has asked its cyber security and law enforcement agencies to investigate complaints that a website had hosted doctored pictures and objectionable comments “aimed at insulting Muslim women”.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response System (Cert-In), the national nodal agency for monitoring cyber security incidents and related threats, has been asked to form “a high level committee” to probe the incident, and to co-ordinate with the cyber cells of state police forces, senior government officials said.
Late on Saturday night, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw had tweeted that GitHub, the coding platform on which the said app was hosted, had blocked the user, and Cert-In and police were “co-coordinating further action”.
On Sunday, in a separate tweet, Vaishnaw said that the government was “working with police organisations in Delhi and Mumbai on this matter”.
Delhi Police had said on Saturday that they had received a complaint from a Delhi-based journalist and were “looking into it” to take “appropriate legal action”. An FIR was registered at its cyber cell police station in Southeast district on Sunday.
Twitter has suspended an account that had been sharing links to the app hosted on GitHub. The Twitter handle had the same name as the objectionable app. Twitter did not respond to emails seeking comments on the account and its suspension.
Earlier in June 2021, another app with a name similar to the one currently under investigation had appeared on GitHub with pictures of Muslim women captioned “deal of the day”.
On July 7 and 8, police in Noida and Delhi had registered separate FIRs against unknown persons, but there has been no progress in the investigations since.
Doctored photos of at least 100 Muslim women, along with lewd remarks and comments, were posted online this week. GitHub subsequently removed the content, but many Twitter users tagged the women and posted screenshots of the webpage.
In her complaint to police on Saturday, the Delhi-based journalist accused unknown persons of promoting enmity, sexual harassment, and insulting women.
“I was shocked to find…that a website/portal…had a doctored picture of me in an improper, unacceptable and clearly lewd context… The…content…is clearly aimed at insulting Muslim women…and the entire website seems to have been designed with the intent of embarrassing and insulting Muslim women,” she said.
“This is nothing short of online harassment and the tweet referred to herein is per se liable for criminal action. The said ‘GitHub’ is violent, threatening and intending to create a feeling of fear and shame in my mind as well as in the minds of women in general, and the Muslim community, whose women are being targeted in this hateful manner. In fact, this website has been targeting other Muslim women as well…,” the complaint said.
Based on the complaint, a case under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 354A (sexual harassment) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) has been registered.
Sources in the cyber cell claimed they had identified some accounts in connection with the objectionable posts, which were deactivated following the police complaint.
Many of the targeted women had been targeted in the earlier case as well. A senior Delhi Police officer said the earlier case had stalled because GitHub had not cooperated.
“We wrote to them and sent them a legal notice about the case. The GitHub officials asked us to follow MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) guidelines and we again pushed for a reply but haven’t received the same,” the officer said.
Another Delhi-based woman journalist told The Indian Express on Sunday that she had discovered her doctored pictures on GitHub on Friday.
“I was tagged in a Twitter post where a man posted a screenshot of the app with my photo and lewd comments. People who commented on his post made vulgar remarks… They took my Twitter display photo and used it in this way. My friends had contacted Gurgaon and Delhi police six months ago. None of us were ever called for questioning or any update. My friend never even received the copy of the FIR,” she said.
Another woman, who is an activist based in the capital, said: “These men were trying to auction us and discussed our rates on the (previous) app. Now this is a (new) way to torture us again… I lodged a complaint with Noida and Delhi Police but nobody called me for questioning.”
Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha/File) The government has asked its cyber security and law enforcement agencies to investigate complaints that a website had hosted doctored pictures and objectionable comments “aimed at insulting Muslim women”. The Indian Computer Emergency Response System (Cert-In), the national nodal agency for monitoring cyber security incidents and related threats, has been asked to form “a high level committee” to probe the incident, and to co-ordinate with the cyber cells of state police forces, senior government officials said. Late on Saturday night, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw had tweeted that GitHub, the coding platform on which the said app was hosted, had blocked the user, and Cert-In and police were “co-coordinating further action”. On Sunday, in a separate tweet, Vaishnaw said that the government was “working with police organisations in Delhi and Mumbai on this matter”. Delhi Police had said on Saturday that they had received a complaint from a Delhi-based journalist and were “looking into it” to take “appropriate legal action”. An FIR was registered at its cyber cell police station in Southeast district on Sunday. Twitter has suspended an account that had been sharing links to the app hosted on GitHub. The Twitter handle had the same name as the objectionable app. Twitter did not respond to emails seeking comments on the account and its suspension. Earlier in June 2021, another app with a name similar to the one currently under investigation had appeared on GitHub with pictures of Muslim women captioned “deal of the day”. On July 7 and 8, police in Noida and Delhi had registered separate FIRs against unknown persons, but there has been no progress in the investigations since. Doctored photos of at least 100 Muslim women, along with lewd remarks and comments, were posted online this week. GitHub subsequently removed the content, but many Twitter users tagged the women and posted screenshots of the webpage. In her complaint to police on Saturday, the Delhi-based journalist accused unknown persons of promoting enmity, sexual harassment, and insulting women. “I was shocked to find…that a website/portal…had a doctored picture of me in an improper, unacceptable and clearly lewd context… The…content…is clearly aimed at insulting Muslim women…and the entire website seems to have been designed with the intent of embarrassing and insulting Muslim women,” she said. “This is nothing short of online harassment and the tweet referred to herein is per se liable for criminal action. The said ‘GitHub’ is violent, threatening and intending to create a feeling of fear and shame in my mind as well as in the minds of women in general, and the Muslim community, whose women are being targeted in this hateful manner. In fact, this website has been targeting other Muslim women as well…,” the complaint said. Based on the complaint, a case under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 354A (sexual harassment) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) has been registered. Sources in the cyber cell claimed they had identified some accounts in connection with the objectionable posts, which were deactivated following the police complaint. Many of the targeted women had been targeted in the earlier case as well. A senior Delhi Police officer said the earlier case had stalled because GitHub had not cooperated. “We wrote to them and sent them a legal notice about the case. The GitHub officials asked us to follow MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) guidelines and we again pushed for a reply but haven’t received the same,” the officer said. Another Delhi-based woman journalist told The Indian Express on Sunday that she had discovered her doctored pictures on GitHub on Friday. “I was tagged in a Twitter post where a man posted a screenshot of the app with my photo and lewd comments. People who commented on his post made vulgar remarks… They took my Twitter display photo and used it in this way. My friends had contacted Gurgaon and Delhi police six months ago. None of us were ever called for questioning or any update. My friend never even received the copy of the FIR,” she said. Another woman, who is an activist based in the capital, said: “These men were trying to auction us and discussed our rates on the (previous) app. Now this is a (new) way to torture us again… I lodged a complaint with Noida and Delhi Police but nobody called me for questioning.”