A Facebook page has come under the scanner of the Maharashtra cyber police for using pictures of girls — both adults and minors — to offer ‘friendship’ and ‘naughty chats’ to male users, as reported by The Asian Age. The Facebook page was brought to the notice of the Mumbai Police by Shaheen Sayyed, a Kuwait based social activist working for a platform called ‘The Voice Raiser’.
Sayyed was scrolling through her Facebook page when she came across a photo of a girl wearing revealing clothes, which took her to a site named Kashi Media. The caption on the picture read, “If interested is in friendship, please leave your number in the comment box.” On visiting the site, Sayyed saw that several photos of girls had been uploaded there.
Speaking to The Logical Indian, Sayyed said, “I was horrified on seeing the photos put up on the website. I was sure these pictures had been uploaded without the concerned person’s consent.”
Sayyed immediately took to Mumbai police’s Twitter handle on 15 July to report the matter along with a link to the Facebook page. Within minutes, the police’s Twitter team replied to her tweet saying that the complaint has been forwarded to the cyber police station and they will take cognisance of the same.
We are forwarding this to the cyber police station. You can contact them on (022-26504008) for further updates
— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) July 15, 2017
An officer from the Cyber police station had assured Sayyed, as well as The Asian Age, saying that adequate measures would be taken to tackle the nuisance – the owner would be questioned, and if any unlawful activity is found on the page, it would be deleted and the owner will be held for questioning. He also said that Facebook account details would be verified and the people who have given their number and posted lewd comments would be questioned.
“But nothing has been done as of now. The Police has not taken any action and has not posted me with any updates. They had asked for two weeks to block the page – that time has long passed, but the page is yet to be blocked,” Sayyed said.
When The Logical Indian contacted the Mumbai cyber police station, initially they seemed at a loss about the entire incident; later, when they were again contacted they said that if the demand for blocking a page has been made by an email to them, it would be taken care of. Sayyed, however, clarified that she was not told anything about emailing her complaints to the cyber cell.
Sayyed had also called the cyber cell to enquire about the follow up regarding the case; they completely denied the fact that any complaint has been registered, saying that they shall look into the matter, the cyber police station asked Sayyed to call again.
The Logical Indian community strongly condemns the apathetic attitude of the Mumbai Cyber police station. It urges the concerned authorities to take notice of the entire situation and carry out a proper investigation in this case. We also appreciate the relentless efforts that Shaheen Sayyed has made to bring this issue to the forefront.
There is a petition asking Facebook to take action, which you can sign here.