A recent report ‘Behind The Pixels: Social Silencing and Isolation of Indian Muslims in the Online Public’ states that the rate of online abuse faced by Muslims has meteorically risen in the last ten years.
The report was released at the Mumbai Press Club on Friday, May 31.
Many people from the community, mostly women, have begun to restrict or withdraw from social media, the report said, published by a coalition of autonomous women’s groups working across India.
The report is based on 18 interviews from six states, including women and men between the age groups of 20s and 50s, and four group discussions.
The report states that while Muslim men face online abuse targeting their mothers and sisters, Muslim women often and in most cases face rapes and death threats. Abuses range from threats of marrying a Kashmiri woman after the abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir to women leading the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which is now a law and calling Muslim men incompetent.
One of the authors of the report, Geeta Thatra believes that online abuse is gender-based. “The difference between the online and offline world is not large and online hatred can inflict violence in the offline world as well. This also leads to the women’s families increasing control and censorship on them to protect them,” The Free Press Journal quoted her.
The report also states that although online abuse existed before 2014, it has rapidly and dramatically ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.
Another researcher, Poushali Basak such abuse triggers psychological traumas. According to her, community-building or a support group is crucial to overcome the trauma. “This is not a one time thing. It triggers material aspects of life. One has to build a community of support with other marginalised groups,” she said.
