Troll armies, ‘deepfake’ porn videos and violent threats. How Twitter became so toxic for India’s women politicians
Sitting on a wicker chair in her East Delhi office, Kavita Krishnan readjusts her glasses and scrolls through Twitter, surveying the latest slew of abusive messages.… The politician and activist, a powerful voice for women’s rights in India, says she receives near “nonstop” harassment – anywhere from 50 to 100 abusive messages a day on Twitter – for being an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).…
“These trolls … they are going after me regularly, routinely, for my skin color, for my looks, telling me I’m not worth raping, what kind of torture and rape I should be subjected to, telling me what kind of men I should be sleeping with … and on and on and on, more and more,” Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association and a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, tells CNN.
“There is an organized army of far-right trolls on Indian social media, which belong to the ruling party, they are basically trained to target you for anything,” she adds.…
SEE ALSO:
- 95 Indian women politicians received one million abusive Tweets in three months: Amnesty study (Jan 23, 2020, Scroll.in)
https://scroll.in/latest/950836/nearly-14-tweets-sent-to-women-politicians-during-2019-polls-were-hurtful-or-abusive-amnesty-study - Adityanath spews sexist venom, declares “azaadi” slogan as treason in UP (Jan 23, 2020, Sabrang India)
https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/adityanath-spews-sexist-venom-declares-azaadi-slogan-treason - UP Police Used Burning Logs, Touched Women Protestors ‘Obscenely’ At Anti-CAA Protest In Etawah (Jan 24, 2020, Huffington Post)
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/up-police-etawah-caa-protests_in_5e2a6966c5b67d8874af4363 - Man Thrashed For Lewd Behaviour, Communal Spin Viral (Jan 21, 2020, Boom)
https://www.boomlive.in/man-thrashed-for-lewd-behaviour,-communal-spin-viral
