Pardafas Reporter
Around a month ago an 18-years-old girl with her father reached the Nepal Police’s Cyber Bureau at Kathmandu all the way from Pokhara. The distressed young girl was at the police station to file a complaint about her short-time boyfriend who had posted pictures of their intimacy at an open facebook group which was reposted multiple times.
The girl had fallen in love with a 19-years-old man from Jhapa who had sent a facebook request to her around two year ago. The young man soon enchanted the girl and they fell in love. After maintaining a long distance relationship through social media for around a year, they both came to Kathmandu to live with their relatives for some time. Here, in Kathmandu they had a cordial relationship in agreement. During their times in seclusion the girl naïvely allowed the boy to take pictures and videos of her body parts including her bare breast, underpants and some videos of them in a half naked situation.
After that they both went back to their hometown and continuing the relationship seemed difficult for the girl. So, one day she asked the boy to be seperated but he refused. So she completly stopped talking with him.
Angered by her activities the boy posted their pictures and vidoes on a facebook group. The pictures and videos soon became widespread. When the girl finally came to know about her private pictures, the posts were spread on multiple other platforms on social media. She reached the boy and pleaded with him to remove the pictures and videos. But, before the boy deleted the contents it was widely downloaded and reposted in other media as well.
Luckily, her father turned out to be her strength who asked her to join the police at Kathmandu. DIG Ram Kripal Shah, head of the Cyber Bureau said, “Today, the boy is behind the bars in Kathmandu until final verdict, but our men are still struggling to remove her contents from various social media.”
The cyber bureau has dealt with two other similar stories in the past few months, where the girls, mostly minors, become victims of revenge porn.
Revenge porn is the video or pictures of private moments between couples, which get into social media as a tool of revenge upon their partner due to various reasons. “The number of revenge porn in Nepal might look smaller in comparison with other forms of cybercrimes but its consequences are really dangerous as such content could destroy the life of the victim and also the culprits,” Shah said.
Other examples of revenge porn are done by morphing face of their partner with pornographic content. The Cyber Bureau says that they receive one or two similar complaints from across the country. “In another classic case of revenge porn is morphing adult contents with the face of their partners, which have become a nuisance for us,” said Shah. But, unlike the real contents of intimate scenes, the damage done by morphed pictures on victims are comparatively less as people easily sympathize with such victims.
Separate groups to circulate such contents
One of the major problems faced by the Cyber Bureau in recent times is to find out different open groups on various social media platforms like facebook, instagram, twitter, messaging apps, telegram and close the group.
Police on an average receives around a dozen complaints about such groups but no matter how hard the police try people tend to create more groups.
Recently, the Bureau had shut down the 'Himalayan Babes' group started by Nepali youth on Reddit, which shared adult contents and some of them had posts of Nepali girls which is illegal in Nepal. While the police can crack open groups, it’s difficult to make arrests about close groups operated among trusted people only as per the police.
Even the police are not sure how many such groups are being operated but they suspect such groups could be in thousands.
Some of the infamous groups in social media like Kand Hub, Babal Inc., Kabaddi Meme and Lasticlick are accused of publishing pornographic content of Nepal girls without their consent. These groups also posted pictures of famous models, artists and young women active on social media.
These groups are also a perfect platform for character assassinations of the girls who are trolled in social media. SSP Nabinda Aryal of Cyber Bureau said, "We receive several complaints through emails and telephone women saying that their pictures have been misused through various groups.”
Suspicion of 'Revenge Porn'
Police officials say a preliminary investigation into four groups currently active on Instagram and Telegram's channel has revealed that the groups were opened out of revenge. In those groups and channels, it has been found that some of them have posted pictures with ex-girlfriends out of revenge.
Revenge porn is the act of posting or sharing personal information, sexually explicit material, photos or videos on the Internet without the consent of the person consent.
Revenge porn is a typical modern malpractice which is a growing cybercrime in India. There is a tendency to post obscene pictures in secretly opened groups after a young woman you love rejects an offer or a love affair breaks up. Similarly, pictures of the young woman are found to have been tampered with morph with nude pictures. Police say that similar practices are being adopted in Nepal.
In Nepal also, the pictures and videos of young women are being posted in social media and people are enjoying their character assassinations making various allegations. A police officer investigating such cases said, “the trend of 'revenge porn' operated through secret groups as police find it difficult to identify such groups.”
Police also said that most of these groups are operated from abroad and the members do not even know who started the group. "Even young people who don't know about the possible crime done through such groups are becoming part of it," he said.
