KOLKATA: The West Bengal Commission for Women (WBCW) on Saturday sent a letter to the cyber crime cell and Facebook urging them to investigate the allegations against students of Jadavpur University for uploading and circulating inappropriate pictures of women in a Google drive. These letters were sent after a group of 110 students from JU sent a petition to the chairperson of WBCW to take cognizance of the “Bois Locker Room” chat in Kolkata that has alleged involvement of JU students. In their petition, they pointed out that the Delhi Commission for Women had sent a notice to Instagram and the police, asking them to investigate the matter.
Leena Gangopadhyay, the WBCW chairperson, said a letter was sent to the deputy commissioner of police of the Kolkata Metropolitan Police’s cyber crime cell. Another letter was sent to Bipasha Chakraborty, the communications director of Facebook India, where reference were made to the allegations against these five accused who have been named on social media. Speaking to TOI, Gangopadhyay said, “We want proper monitoring of the activities of the social media platform to ensure that such pictures violating the modesty of women are not shared there. We have also asked Instagram to initiate appropriate legal actions against the accused.”
Gangopadhyay insisted that she did want pictures violating the modesty of women to be shared on social media. “We want investigation to be done regarding those have been named in the petition. Appropriate action must be initiated against anyone who is found guilty in this regard,” Gangopadhyay added.
According to the petition, five men who are either “ex-students of Jadavpur University” or “current students of the same university” had been circulating inappropriate pictures of women in a Google drive. These pictures “would be obtained through coercion or consent by one of them and then shared with the other men (thus violating the woman’s consent)”. The petitioners mentioned that due to the nature of Google drive, it is not possible to verify who had access to it unless there is an intervention by the cyber cell experts and law enforcement.
Ekabali Ghosh, a research scholar from JU’s English department who is among the petitioners, told TOI, “There is a culture of silence around sexual violence especially when women have been sexually active. In cases like these, the risk of victim shaming is always doubled as the women might have shared nudes of themselves. Stories of revenge porn abound in media.” This petition, she said, was sent because it “appealed unanimously to women at a deep affective level, that it could have been them”.
Leena Gangopadhyay, the WBCW chairperson, said a letter was sent to the deputy commissioner of police of the Kolkata Metropolitan Police’s cyber crime cell. Another letter was sent to Bipasha Chakraborty, the communications director of Facebook India, where reference were made to the allegations against these five accused who have been named on social media. Speaking to TOI, Gangopadhyay said, “We want proper monitoring of the activities of the social media platform to ensure that such pictures violating the modesty of women are not shared there. We have also asked Instagram to initiate appropriate legal actions against the accused.”
Gangopadhyay insisted that she did want pictures violating the modesty of women to be shared on social media. “We want investigation to be done regarding those have been named in the petition. Appropriate action must be initiated against anyone who is found guilty in this regard,” Gangopadhyay added.
According to the petition, five men who are either “ex-students of Jadavpur University” or “current students of the same university” had been circulating inappropriate pictures of women in a Google drive. These pictures “would be obtained through coercion or consent by one of them and then shared with the other men (thus violating the woman’s consent)”. The petitioners mentioned that due to the nature of Google drive, it is not possible to verify who had access to it unless there is an intervention by the cyber cell experts and law enforcement.
Ekabali Ghosh, a research scholar from JU’s English department who is among the petitioners, told TOI, “There is a culture of silence around sexual violence especially when women have been sexually active. In cases like these, the risk of victim shaming is always doubled as the women might have shared nudes of themselves. Stories of revenge porn abound in media.” This petition, she said, was sent because it “appealed unanimously to women at a deep affective level, that it could have been them”.
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