New Delhi: “Ever since she recorded the video, my daughter has been receiving disgusting threats on social media. She is terrified. So am I,” said the mother of a 10-year-old content creator from UP, whose name and city of residence were revealed by a user identifying themselves as a ‘Hindu Sanatani’, after a video she posted on the PM went viral. The girl has been receiving rape and death threats ever since.
She is not the only one. Another Delhi-based 26-year-old content creator has been receiving threats in her inbox, despite deleting her video. She fears leaving home, and her parents have stopped speaking to her. Nishka had gone to the CJP protest to record vlogs, and one such vlog went viral. “That has changed my life for the worse, I am scared of creating content. I receive rape and death threats every second,” Nishka told ThePrint.
The intimidation is similar to what a 15-year-old girl, also from UP, faced after her video, in which she made derogatory remarks about the Prime Minister went viral. An FIR was filed against her, her home address was shared on X, and this forced the family to flee their home.
The Cockroach Janta Party protest that began at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar may have concluded, but the lives of these female content creators have changed for the worse. Targeted by coordinated harassment online, they have been getting rape and death threats.
Not only did the content creators have to delete their videos, they also had to post an apology. Today, the 26-year-old fears leaving her home in Delhi, and the 10-year-old has to delete the threats she receives daily on her phone.
‘What has she even done?’
“She must be hardly what 10-12. But look at the hate she has for Narendra Modi…” read a post on X from an account of someone claiming to be a ‘Sanatani Hindu’.
The user revealed her name and city of residence and asked the police to investigate.
“This small girl is (name removed). She must be hardly what 10-12. But look at the hate she has for Narendra Modi. @AshwiniVaishnaw. It’s high time kids should be blocked across social media. Time is ticking fast! The action should be taken on parents of such kids!! @narendramodi Gen Z is loosing track due to social media! Please have a quick fix. @Uppolice @varanasipolice. She is from xx (removed)”.
While the 10-year-old student’s parents had no issue with her content, they now fear for her safety. “What has she even done,” asks her mother. “My daughter likes to create content. The only mistake was that she had a public Instagram account…”
“My daughter started receiving so many disgusting messages, there were threats. I told her to delete the video. They were abusing my daughter so much; this was very scary for her,” the mother said. “My daughter couldn’t understand the gravity of the threats that she was receiving. But, she has been extremely terrified,” he mother said.
The intimidation led the girl to finally record an apology video. In the video, she said, “I didn’t record this video of my own free will. I recorded the video for fun after watching videos recorded by other people. I seek your apology PM, the work you have done for Kashi, nobody has done.”
A social media account of someone identifying themselves as ‘political junkie’ shared her apology video and said, “Here you go, one by one, the wits of all the abusive folks are coming to their senses. This girl is from xxx (removed), who was slapping a picture with a slipper while hurling abuses at Prime Minister Modi; now she too has apologised. Parents must certainly explain to their children that in the pursuit of looking cool, they shouldn’t forget the dignity of their values.”
‘I know where she lives. DM me’
Delhi-based content creator Nishka Rajora, who has over 2 lakh followers on Instagram, has been vlogging for over two years. A B.Com graduate of Dyal Singh College in DU, her Instagram feed was filled with content from the CJP protest. There were video interviews, dance videos, others making vlogs. So, Nishka decided to go to the protest site herself the day Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union education minister.
“I decided to go there because I too wanted to do something for the youth. That day, there was a lot of celebration, we recorded so many vlogs, one such vlog then went viral… and that has changed my life,” Nishka told ThePrint.
The video showed Nishka and her friend, making a comment about Hindu deities, which many termed “derogatory.” This video received over 4 million views, she said.
“When I saw the video receiving a lot of hate, I instantly deleted it. But by then, so many social media accounts had downloaded my video and they started sharing it. Not only were there rape and death threats, they asked people to share my address,” she said.
“The kind of news articles that were being published, the kind of social media posts that were made reached my parents. They were disappointed. I was scared, what if they put pause on my content creation? What if they don’t allow me to leave India? It was a mistake, it was a slip of the tongue,” she said.
Nishka claimed that in the comments section under those posts, people from her neighbourhood in Delhi said, “I know where she lives. DM me”.
“That terrified me so much. Right now they are all over my comments section. What if they reach my house? What will I even do?” Nishka asked.
For days now, Nishka hasn’t eaten, hasn’t left home. People peep into her house, she said. “Every 10 seconds, I received a rape and death threat. My life has turned into hell.”
A few men in her neighbourhood took her to meet a self-styled Sanatan activist Azad Vinod. Nishka told them she would post an apology video, after which Vinod posted: “I would like to inform all my Sanatan Hindu brothers and sisters to not use any harsh language against them.”
“The apology video was important. They made a grave mistake against our deities, and they have apologised. The matter is over,” Vinod told ThePrint.
The apology video itself got more than 2 lakh views.
After her experience, Nishka has turned off comments on her feed and stopped creating content.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)