While social media outrage continues over the Bulli Bai app there’s a segment of the population, both online and offline, who are unable to understand why ‘Bulli Bai’ is making headlines and what’s the actual crime. In fact, some people are seen justifying on Twitter that the Bulli Bai app may have been created just for fun and it did not create any problems for the women listed for ‘auction’ in real life. These justifications make things sound pathetic because a society collectively can’t even understand what’s wrong and what needs to be corrected.

The thought process stems from the fact that some segments of our society have very little awareness about online harassment. For them, the discussions around crime against women mostly revolve around rape and physical abuse. Crimes like eve-teasing, stalking, flashing, online trolling, morphing photos, etc are considered ‘just for fun’. And this same school of thought leads to justifying organised crimes like Sulli or Bulli ‘auctions’.

Breaking Down Bulli Bai: What is actually wrong

To understand what’s wrong with Bulli Bai and why it’s wrong, imagine this scenario: you are browsing through Facebook and you suddenly come across a photo of your little sister or cousin or any other female member of your family with an objectionable caption like “hey, for fun contact here” with the actual phone number or Twitter ID of that person.

Consider another scenario where someone sends you a screenshot of a Tinder page that contains your wife’s photograph, Instagram ID and phone number (written in words).

How will you feel? Now, multiply this feeling when the photo of your sister or wife goes viral on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms and people start posting nasty comments. ‘Just for fun’ would be the last thing that will come to your mind then. This is where the harassment starts.

Now, in both the cases the women had got no clue whatsoever about how their photos became viral. Some low-life crooks may have stolen images from social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc and made fake profiles for their version of ‘fun’.

Something similar happened with Bulli Bai as well. A bunch of low-life perverts gathered photos from sites like LinkedIn and Twitter of successful and influential women, belonging to the Muslim community, and created an app called Bulli Bai on GitHub. Through that app, photos of the woman were showcased with the caption “Your Bulli Bai of the Day” is…

The term Bulli is just another form of the Sulli Deals that appeared six months ago. The word ‘Sulli’ is a slang used to troll Muslim women.

While the Bulli Bai app was known to a very small set of online users, what converted this into a full-fledged online harassment was a section of Twitter users starting tagging the handles of women found on the Bulli Bai app. Soon, the app became viral and the targeted women started to get trolled and bullied online leading to unnecessary mental harassment during the start of 2022.

Here’s how Bulli Bai makers are criminals, legally

You may argue that the Indian Penal Code doesn’t define direct punishment for online harassment but there’s enough provisions in the IT Act and Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 that defines Bulli Bai app creators as criminals. In fact, the act of stealing photos without consent attracts section 354C of the IPC while 354D involves stalking.

The hate speeches and comments can be legally clubbed into a defamation and insulting the modesty of a woman through the organised Bulli Bai campaign. Sections like 499, 503, 506, 507 and 509 of IPC can be pressed to book the culprits.

Also, under the IT Act sections 66C, 66E, 67, 67A among others, the creators of the Sulli and Bulli platforms can be put behind bars, if the government wants to act.

So, if you are under any impression that the media is simply sensationalising the Bulli Bai controversy and the creators of the Bulli Bai app are unnecessarily being targeted as they haven’t done any big crime then it’s time you get a reality check. Open your eyes and try to comprehend that it was an organised attempt to harass, defame and bully around hundred women.