Priyanka Chaturvedi writes to IT Minister seeking action against ‘Sulli Deals’, ‘Liberal Doge’

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Friday wrote to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw requesting him to take stringent action against a YouTube channel “that ran a live auction of women of a particular community” and an app that had posted pics of several women taken from their social media profiles without consent.

“…I request you to take urgent and strict actions to deal with such nuisance so as to protect the dignity of women of our society as any responsible government should,” Chaturvedi wrote in a letter to Vaishnaw.

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi writes to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw requesting him to take strict actions against a YouTube channel “that ran a live auction of women of a particular community” & an app that had posted pics of several women from their social media websites. pic.twitter.com/ylw398mQ1p

— ANI (@ANI) July 30, 2021

Flagging concerns about the lack of safe cyberspace for women, she said, “The misuse of social and digital media to harass and attack the dignity of a woman is disheartening. In a country where women are struggling with gender bias, these incidents yet again lay bare the protection and safety of women, especially in cyberspace.”

Describing the two cases, she said, “A few months back, a YouTube channel ‘Liberal Doge’ ran a live “auction” of women belonging to a particular community. People were bidding and rating women based on their physical appearance and wrote degrading comments. More recently, pictures of several women have been uploaded without their knowledge or consent on the app called ‘Sulli Deals’ that had posted pictures of several women from various professions, including journalists, sourced from their social media websites.”

Chaturvedi pointed out that the women targeted on the app faced threats, embarrassment and harassment, and said the purpose of the app was to degrade and humiliate women belonging to a particular community.

She also alleged that “no real progress has been made so far” despite the Delhi and Noida Police registering cases.

“The lack of stringent efficient preventive laws and punishments for such cases only motivates perpetrators,” she wrote, adding: “It pains me to see that hardly any movement with regards to this case has been taken as of now despite the seriousness of it.”

According to complaints lodged with the police in Delhi and Noida, pictures of several Muslim women have been uploaded without their consent on the app, which was created on GitHub, a popular hosting platform with a number of open-source codes. When a user selected the “deal of the day” option on the home screen, it displayed the picture of a woman.

Earlier, Congress MP Md Jawaid too had requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure that those found guilty in connection with photos of women being uploaded on an ‘Sulli deals’ app were brought to book. He also said that 56 MPs across party lines have signed his letter demanding punishment for those found guilty.