Cases like these of revenge porn — non-consensual sharing of intimate sexual images by former partners — is on the rise in India, fuelled by the growing spread of social media and the cloak of anonymity it offers.

Shikha’s feet tremble as she walks out of the door of her house, each and every day. She fears getting out of her house, being recognized. For the past 1 year, the 21 year old has opted for home educational courses and has chosen content writing for a living.

Shikha’s confinement to her home began in July last year when her ex-boyfriend, whom she had been dating for two years, uploaded graphic videos, pictures of her on adult websites after they broke up. Her nightmare had just begun. Using these videos as blackmail, he sexually assaulted her several times over the next 6 months.

35 year old IT professional Manav would chat a lot and sometimes flirt with a colleague. It was only later that he realized that this colleague had shared videos of Manav masturbating, shot through the webcam on his laptop, to all his colleagues – when they fell out. Manav lodged an FIR at a local police station but never gathered the courage to go back to work again.

Cases like these of revenge porn — non-consensual sharing of intimate sexual images by former partners — is on the rise in India, fuelled by the growing spread of social media and the cloak of anonymity it offers. There are an estimated 3000 revenge porn websites worldwide. A 2016 survey conducted by Cyber & Law Foundation, an NGO in India points out that 27% of internet users aged 13 to 45 has been subjected to such situations.

“Revenge porn videos and love web cams finds a huge market in India and abroad. Clips are often used by blackmailers to extort money and sexual favours from the victims and their families,” says Prashant Mali, Bombay High Court Lawyer & Cyber Policy Expert.

Pranaadhika Sinha Devburman, Founder of 1 Million against Child/​Adult Sexual Abuse, cites another incident where, Rene, a Kolkata based theatre artist whose ex-boyfriend leaked all her private pictures and videos in whatsapp groups and email threads. ​“He texted her threats four times and had sent an inebriated voice note filled with expletives. The police were informed and he was duly charged,” Devburman.

Debarati Halder, a cybercrime victim counsellor says that in most cases, survivors do not approach the local police stations to lodge a complaint fearing societal and family stigma. ​“We need to work more in teaching the police and the public about consent based sexuality. Without such steps, authorities will continue to blame, shame and re-victimize women, which really offer a woman no good reason to come forward,” says Chinmayi Arun, Research Director, Centre for Communication Governance, National Law University, Delhi.

Triveni Singh, Additional Superintendent (Cyber Crime), UP Police says that victims generally do not approach the cops in such cases but have directly approached him seeking help.

Legal experts believe that the law is clear in such cases.​Dr. Anja Kovacs who directs the Internet Democracy Project in Delhi, India and Mishi Choudhary, President, SFLC argues that Section 66E of the IT Act punishes people for violation of privacy. ​“Whoever, intentionally or knowingly captures, publishes or transmits the image of a private area of any person without his or her consent, under circumstances violating the privacy of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with fine not exceeding two lakh rupees, or with both,” said Choudhary.

In US, revenge porn is a huge market. A 2016 Data and research Institute showed one in 25 online Americans have been victims of someone posting, threatening to post nude images of them without permission.

Betty Rage, who runs an online group called BADASS (babes against demeaning and abusive selfie sharing), narrates an incident where she was going through the now infamous AnonIB — a message board where pictures of women from across the world are posted without their consent.” I was going through AnonIB boards one day and found that a high school friends picture was posted along wither her details. To her horror she discovered that these pictures have been spread on other child porn websites as well.”

Frederick Lane, author of the book, Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age points out those authorities across the world should treat offenses like these as the case of allegations against Harvey Weisnstein and other powerful figures. ​“The damage done to women and men through electronic assault is as great if not great as the damage done by physical assaults,” said Lane.

(Names of survivors have been changed)