Singer Chinmayi Sripaada started a petition asking Twitter to delete accounts that give rape threats
20-year-old Gurmehar Kaur became a centre of controversy after she posted a message against BJP's student wing ABVP. While netizens may be divided whether they agree with Gurmehar's view or not, there is one issue everyone agrees on - trolling is not acceptable. Gurmehar was viciously trolled for her views online. But she wasn't alone. Playback singer Chinmayi Sripaada has started an
online petition after she was trolled, threatened with rape. Why? Simply for expressing her views.
"You need to be raped ..."
"I'll throw acid on your face"
"I'll make sure you never sing again"
These are only some of the threats Chinmayi got on Twitter. In her petition '#RapeThreatsNotOK' on Change.org, Chinmayi shared her experience on Twitter after speaking her mind. When she reported the threatening tweets to Twitter, the company refused to take action till there was a police case. "Most women give up at this stage and quit Twitter. I decided to fight and filed a police complaint. Ultimately it was my fans who helped us identify my abusers. 3 people were arrested and spent 10 days in jail", she writes.
Addressed to the CEO Jack Dorsey, the petition seeks 'large scale shutdown of accounts which tweet rape threats against women'. Nearly 40,000 people have signed the petition.
People on Twitter supported her campaign
Internet is fast turning into an unsafe place for women to navigate. Many women are at the receiving end of racist, sexist attacks on social media platforms. With no policing, they are often soft targets of trolls.
Twitter, are you listening?