NEW DELHI – A media organisation in India has lodged a complaint regarding online harassment, including rape and death threats, over a video they had uploaded calling out the alleged misogyny and celebratory tone for rape of a music video.
The Quint, in its complaint, stated they are filing a case against Om Prakash Mishra, singer of controversial YouTube title ‘Bol Na Aunty Aau Kya’, and his supporters for attacking “The Quint journalists on social media” as well as the organisation’s Facebook page. According to The Quint, Prakash and others have put up an ‘event invite’ on Facebook for September 22, asking supporters to gather outside its office.
Uploaded on YouTube in late 2015, ‘rap king’ Omprakash Mishra’s “Bol Na Aunty Aau Kya“, a sexist song about a boy who wants to have sex with an ‘aunty’ who refuses to ‘give in’, became viral last year.
The video, which had over 3,000,000 hits, 30,000 likes and 60,000 dislikes before it taken down by YouTube because of copyright issues, was ‘discovered’ by humour pages on Facebook only this year.
“The cyber cell is investigating the matter. As investigation proceeds, action will be taken,” said Arun Kumar Singh, SP (City), Gautam Buddh Nagar.
A Facebook page going by the name MemeMandir, that claims to be a Omprakash Mishra fan, has now organised a ‘Shouting ‘Bolna Aunty Aun Kya’ at The Quint’s Office’ event
Omprakash Mishra himself has added fuel to the fire by asking to ‘report Quint Neon’ from his personal page on Facebook.
The Quint, on its website, wrote: “Freedom of speech in India does not give one the right to incite violence against any group. For example, hate speech inciting communal hatred is a crime. Your right to freedom of speech and expression does not give you the right to make a rape threat at me, or anyone else.”
“It is in this light that The Quint decided to demand that YouTube took down a video that unabashedly calls for sexual harassment and abuse.”
“We are not the new Censor Board, as some of you have claimed. We are just not happy to tolerate songs that threaten rape. To the argument that the same can be said of several Bollywood songs, we should call those out too. All of us should.”
