IT Ministry acts against app offering Muslim women on sale

After another version of “Sulli Deals” surfaced on the internet, displaying Muslim women for sale online, the IT ministry has claimed to have acted swiftly on the matter. The app called “Bulli Bai” looks like another version of “Sulli Deals” that triggered a massive controversy earlier.

The matter was brought to the notice of Minister of Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw by Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Twitter.

Chaturvedi tweeted: “I have repeatedly asked Hon. IT Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw ji to take stern action against such rampant misogyny and communal targeting of women through #sullideals like platforms. A shame that it continues to be ignored.”

Replying to Chaturvedi, Vaishnaw tweeted that GitHub had confirmed blocking the user this morning. “CERT and Police authorities are coordinating further action,” the minister tweeted.

Top sources in MeitY said that it had brought the matter to the notice of Delhi Police as well as Mumbai Police.

Sources said police in the Southeast Delhi district received a complaint last evening and was acting on it. The cyber unit had contacted Twitter India, following which Twitter blocked the account of the person who first posted about the app.

Sources also said GitHub had intimated MeitY that it had received a complaint from Mumbai Police and that their headquarters was in the process of taking action.

The union government, meanwhile, is also assuring cooperation to any such investigation. But since law and order was a state subject, police of the particular where the complaint has been received will have to act upon it.

When the ‘Sulli Deals’ controversy made news last year, Chaturvedi had raised the issue with the IT ministry. In a series of letters, the Sena MP had asked the union government to take action against such apps that vilified women of a particular community.

In a letter to Vaishnaw in September last year, Chaturvedi said she had been disappointed, and claimed that despite a discussion over the issue last month, the government had not taken any steps or action against websites that posted derogatory content about women.

The IT ministry, however, had already responded to the matter when the Sulli Deals app became public in July, even before the MP wrote a letter in August.