Abuses on Internet have become rampant nowadays but the following kind of gender harassment takes the cake.
Varsha Ramnath’s (name changed) photo on a Facebook page Girl friends online with a tagline Do you like me, garnered quite a bit of attention on Sunday. Varsha who reported the abuse immediately is a photographer and a student of IIM, Kozhikode. But to her surprise, the FB authorities refused to take off the picture stating that ‘it doesn’t violate their community standards’.
She was devastated when her friend posted the link of the page on her chat window on Saturday. Till then, she had no clue that her picture had been stolen by the admin of this page. The caption has evoked cheap, derogatory comments like Why not beauty, Yup I really really like u, nice smileeeeeeeeeeeee........i love uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, GoooooooD Superrrrrrrr I LOVE YOU give me???, ya i f*** with you and Looks nughty!wow ur so sexy iwant 2 f*** u baby. And she is not alone on this page. Pictures of other girls as well have been posted with captions like plz like & comment ur Age..., Time 4 chat..., Good Morning guyzzzz, i want a boy friend... comment ur age plzzzz and plz come with me for a drive. As if this was not enough the ‘about’ section reads Like to join with girls...
“It is a very cheap page and the admin picked up my picture without my consent from my profile. I reported abuse on Facebook but they haven’t taken any action. I have deleted my pictures from my personal profile. But I don’t know how to get my picture off that page,” Varsha Ramnath (name changed) told City Express from Kerala.
The picture went viral on Sunday as many shared it and requested to report such abuses. Some have even commented on Jammu’s picture, asking the admin of the page to remove the picture immediately. Facebook users from Bangalore have also reacted and shared the picture on their walls.