National Commission for Women India chief Rekha Sharma has taken cognisance of ‘sexual abuse pranks’ done by a multitude of YouTubers.
The issue was highlighted by the verified Twitter account ‘Youth Against Rape’, which brought to her notice, how YouTubers have been harassing women by invading consent and making money.
The Twitter thread also highlights how some of these channels have lakhs of subscribers and are even verified content creators on the digital platform.
It also brought into notice that some of these pranks aren’t legit and often the people involved in them give consent to such heinous acts.
Tagging the NCW chief and Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Ravi Shankar Prasad on the microblogging platform, the collective urged them to look it up stating, “In the name of prank today's generation is spreading filth, no relation is bared neither any sensitivity is portrayed. The girls are being touched publicly for such cringe content. Will, you still keep quiet seeing all this.”
It further added, “Above we showed you today's reality. You still want to be silent seeing all this? Don't forget your silence will just give rise to more such pranksters.”
Responding to the same, Sharma tweeted, "Will take it up with @YouTube."
This comes nearly a month after the Central government announced new rules to curb misuse of social media platforms as it mandated firms to appoint grievance officer, disclose the first originator of the mischievous information and remove, within 24 hours, content depicting nudity or morphed pictures of women.
As per the new rules, social media intermediaries have to appoint grievance officer, who shall register complaints in 24 hours. The grievance redressal official must be resident in India, and monthly compliance reports will have to be filed by social media platforms.
Social media platforms on being asked by court or government will be required to disclose the first originator of the mischievous information.
