"Sulli Deals" was an open-source app which contained photographs and personal information of some 100 Muslim women online. An

FIR Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely related to ...

was filed by the Delhi Police with

National Commission for Women The National Commission for Women (NCW) is the statutory body of the Government of India, generally concerned with advising the government on all policy matters affecting women. It was established on 31 January 1992 under the provisions of the I ...

India taking ''

suo moto In law, ''sua sponte'' (Latin: "of his, her, its or their own accord") or ''suo motu'' ("on its own motion") describes an act of authority taken without formal prompting from another party. The term is usually applied to actions by a judge taken w ...

'' cognisance of the matter on 8 July 2021. The creator of the app was a BCA Student from

Indore, Madhya Pradesh Indore () is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It serves as the headquarters of both Indore District and Indore Division. It is also considered as an education hub of the state and is the only city to ...

. On 9 January 2022, Thakur, who created the app to "defame" Muslim women, was arrested by the

Delhi Police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. In 2015, sanctioned strength of Delhi ...

. Thakur was granted bail on 29 March by the court.

Incident

On 4 July 2021, several pictures of Muslim women were posted on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, where each was described as a "deal of the day". Several accounts spoke against the app, which was hosted on

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, co ...

as an "open-source project." After multiple complaints, GitHub took the app down and suspended the "sullideals" account which hosted the app. This was not the first time Muslim women were harassed by right-wing social media users. In May 2021, a YouTuber named Liberal Doge "rated out of 10" Pakistani women in his livestream and some group of anonymous accounts harassed Hasiba Amin, the National Convenor of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

IT Cell. According to analysts, the same group of people were behind the Sulli Deals app. However, Liberal Doge denied any connection with the Sulli Deals app.

Reaction

Commentators have described the app as targeted harassment against Muslim women, with NCW taking

cognizance over the matter and Delhi Police Cyber Cell registering an FIR under section 354-A. One of the targeted women, pilot Hina Khan, filed a separate FIR with Delhi Police under section 509 and section 66,67 of the IT Act.

Shiv Sena Shiv Sena (IAST: ''Śiva Sēnā'') () was a Right-wing politics, right-wing to Far-right politics, far-right Marathi people, Marathi Regionalism (politics), regionalist and Hindu nationalism, Hindu ultranationalist political party in India f ...

Priyanka Chaturvedi Priyanka Vickram Chaturvedi (born 19 November 1979) is an Indian politician serving as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra and Deputy Leader of Shiv Sena. Prior to this, she was a member and one of the National Spokespersons of ...

wrote to the IT minister demanding strict and urgent action against the creators of the app. In addition, 56 MPs across party lines signed a letter to the home minister

Amit Shah Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Jana ...

seeking redressal. Congress MP

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...

and

AIMIM The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen ( en, All India Council for Unity of Muslims) ( AIMIM) is an Indian political party based primarily in the city of Hyderabad. It is also a significant political party in the Indian States of Telangana ...

president

Asaduddin Owaisi Asaduddin Owaisi (born 13 May 1969) is an Indian politician, who is the President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). He is a 4 time Member of Parliament (MP), representing the Hyderabad constituency in Lok Sabha, the lower ...

showed solidarity with the targeted women and assured that they would pursue the case to prevent further misuse of social media. More than 800 women-rights activists from all over India released a statement seeking action against the culprits. Both GitHub and Twitter were criticized for failing to prevent further harassment of Muslim women after the auction fiasco and not taking quick action against the sullideals account. As of November 2021, the identity of the creator of the app was still unknown, with GitHub refusing to share data to Indian authorities through the usual CrPC notice. On 6 January 2022, the

said they were looking for the actual creator of the app through MLAT. On 11 January 2022, the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Fernand de Varennes, said, "Minority Muslim women in India are harassed and ‘sold’ in social media apps, #SulliDeals, a form of hate speech, must be condemned and prosecuted as soon as they occur. All Human Rights of minorities need to be fully and equally protected".

Arrest

In January 2022, Delhi police arrested the creator of Sulli Deals, in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

Aftermath

In 2022, a similar app named

Bulli Bai The Bulli Bai case related to an online mock auction of Muslim women in India. Photos of prominent Muslim journalists and activists were uploaded on the Bulli Bai app without their permission where they were auctioned virtually. Like Sulli Deals ...

was created to auction Muslim women, in which the same Trad group was involved. Police arrested Neeraj Bishnoi, an engineering student, in the case. In March 2022, Niraj Bishnoi was granted bail by the court.

Notes

References

{{Sexual abuse 2021 in India July 2021 crimes in Asia 2021 controversies Sexual harassment in India Cybercrime in India Cyberbullying 2021 in Internet culture Islam in India Islamophobia in India Indian websites Internet properties established in 2021 Internet properties disestablished in 2021 Internet trolling Online obscenity controversies Shock sites Websites with far-right material Internet forums Internet-related controversies Stalking Delisted applications Hindutva