KATHMANDU, JANUARY 3
Anu (name changed), now 18, was 17 years old when her boyfriend posted pictures and videos of their intimate relationship in a Facebook group to take revenge after she broke up with him.
Anu, who hails from Pokhara, had met the boy, aged 19, from Jhapa, through Facebook. They developed cordial long distance relationship in no time. Around six months ago, they decided to meet in Kathmandu. Eventually, both of them drove from their hometown and started to live at the homes of their relatives.
The handsome and rich boy soon enchanted the girl. They were also engaged in physical relationship. The naïve girl also allowed the boy to take pictures and videos of their intimacy.
After some time, they returned to their hometown.
Their long distance relationship didn't work. So, the girl told the boy she wanted to break up, but the boy was not ready for it. So, the girl completely stopped talking to him.
Furious, the boy posted her pictures showing her private parts and a video of them fondling inside a room in a private Facebook group. A classic case of revenge porn.
Soon, the video spread like wildfire. As time passed, the girl came to know that the videos were shared in dozens of other open groups. The distressed girl then pleaded to the boy to remove it. By the time he removed the video, it was downloaded by hundreds of social media users and shared on dozens of similar platforms.
Luckily, for Anu, her father came as a beacon of hope and supported her. They both left for Kathmandu and filed a complaint at the Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police.
Sharing the story with THT, DIG Ram Kripal Shah said they arrested the boy after the complaint was received, but were still struggling to completely remove the video from social media. "The boy has been sent to judicial custody, but police still find the same pictures and videos in various social media platforms as they were already downloaded by many users before being removed from the original posts."
DIG Shah said the bureau had dealt with two similar cases in the past few months. In both cases, the victims were minors. "Although cases of revenge porn are less than other forms of sexual exploitation of women in social media, its consequences are far more devastating," Shah said. "In many instances, the victims who are minor girls think that ending their lives is the only solution to escape the humiliation and shame of such videos,"
Shah told THT.
People are also often found morphing the images of their partners with pornographic content to take revenge. "Most of these kinds of revenge are taken by boys after they are rejected by girls or after girls don't want to continue the relationship," said one police officer at the Cyber Bureau who specialises in similar crimes. She said they often record one or two cases in few days from girls citing that their faces were attached with pornographic images or their pictures were posted in such groups labelling them prostitutes.
"Most of such posts are also made by boys who once used to be their boyfriend.
Some boys just want to have fun or want to take revenge," said the officer.
Police said there could be hundreds of open groups in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other messaging apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp.
Despite the police's vigorous attempt to scrap such posts, people make new ones. Also, police find it difficult to identify such groups if they are operated as private groups.
"Of all the cases recorded at the bureau, 70 per cent are under the title of digital violence against women," said SSP Nabinda Aryal of Cyber Bureau.
On an average, the Bureau records 25 to 30 written complaints per day related to digital violence against women.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 4, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
