‘Sulli Deals’: UN Special Rapporteur Condemns Social Media Attacks On Muslim Women, Calls It Form Of Hate Speech

The Delhi police have recently arrested Aumkareshwar Thakur, the creator of the app ‘Sulli deals’ which sourced, morphed, and posted pictures of Muslim women on social media without their permission.

New Delhi: A United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority issues has condemned the attempts of sexual harassment of Muslim women on social media. The comment from the UN Special rapporteur Dr. Fernand de Varenne came in line with the recent incidents of incriminating apps like ‘Sulli Deals’ and ‘Bulli Bai’ made on GitHub.

Dr. Varenne took to Twitter to emphasise that such attempts should be condemned as they are a form of hate speech. “#Minority Muslim women in #India are harassed & 'sold' in #socialmedia apps, #SulliDeals, a form of #HateSpeech, must be condemned and prosecuted as soon as they occur. All #HumanRights of minorities need to be fully & equally protected,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Delhi police have recently arrested Aumkareshwar Thakur, 26, the creator of the app ‘Sulli deals’ which sourced, morphed, and posted pictures of Muslim women on social media without their permission. The pictures were posted as ‘Deal of the day'. 

Thakur, a graduate in Computer Applications, was arrested from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the first one to be arrested in the case. The app had surfaced months ago, and all accounts were taken down after the complaints by multiple women.

According to news agency PTI, he had admitted being a member of a Twitter group in which the idea was shared to defame and troll Muslim women. “He admitted that he had developed the code/app on GitHub. After the uproar regarding the Sulli Deals app, he had deleted all his social media footprints," a senior police officer said.

However, a similar app surfaced on January 1 named ‘Bulli Bai’. The basic structure of the app was the same. Created on GitHub, the app sourced and doctored images of Muslim women without consent, and then posted them online as “Bulli Bai of the day”.

The case was registered with the Delhi Police after a complaint from a Delhi-based female journalist for auctioning Muslim women online. The main accused in the case, identified as a 21-year-old man named Niraj Bishnoi was arrested from Assam. 

According to Delhi police, Bishnoi is the alleged mastermind and the creator of the app. He has also admitted during interrogation that he was in touch with the person behind the Twitter handle @sullideals who was the creator of the “Sulli Deals” hosted on GitHub.