A journalist working with news website The Quint has received multiple rape and death threats on her Facebook account and personal number in connection with a video she had uploaded for the website. The video described the lyrics of song Bol Na Aunty Aau Kya composed by a person identified as Om Prakash Mishra as sexist and abusive. The controversial song became popular on YouTube and social media platforms.
An FIR is yet to be registered in the case. “The matter will be investigated by the cyber cell,” Superintendent of Police (Noida City) Arun Kumar Singh said.
The online harassment against The Quint escalated after YouTube reportedly removed the video of the song from its platform. The song is back on the video-sharing platform. Several individuals and social media groups on Facebook started abusing The Quint website for their role in it. “When we investigated, it emerged that the video was taken down over some copyright matters and that The Quint report had nothing to do with it,” a journalist working with the Quint said.
Organisers at an event held at Delhi’s Connaught Place last week said they were bringing people together to scream aloud “Bol Na Aunty Auu Kya.” Members of a Facebook page named MemeMandir discussed ways to organise a similar event outside the Quint’s office in Noida in a bid to intimidate the organisation. The discussion involved suggestions to hack the website and Facebook pages to teach The Quint a lesson.
One of the death threat messages received by the female journalist concerned through Whatsapp on September 16, which Scroll.in has access to, says nothing about the video and rather threatens her saying anyone who criticises Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party, will meet a tragic end like journalist Gauri Lankesh. The journalist was murdered at her house in Bengaluru on September 5.
The Quint had lodged a police complaint on September 16 and sent a letter explaining the details of the incident to the office of the Superintendent of Police in Noida’s Gautam Budh Nagar. The organisation requested for security for the journalist and and the office to avoid any untoward incident.
On September 17, the Quint took down the video criticizing the song from both its Facebook page and Youtube to ensure the security of the woman journalist concerned, a journalist with the organisation said.
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