“This is a frontal attack to cyber security victimising many families, innocent women who are online with good intention,” MSCW chairperson Prof. Binota Meinam said.
TFM Desk
Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) on Tuesday registered a case regarding the obnoxious facebook group “Kanglei emagi….” which has become infamous for sharing photographs of women in a demeaning manner without their consent and passing foul comments on it. The Director General of Police, Manipur has been asked to respond to the complaint petition filed by Mingsel Foundation president Jelina Ashem in three weeks’ time.
In her complaint, Jelina stated that a Facebook group named “Kanglei emagi….” has been uploading pictures of numerous women without their knowledge. The Facebook group has around 25,000 members. The complainant also stated that “they have been sharing photos and videos of numbers of women, discussing and commenting obnoxiously. While social media is supposed to be a platform where people reach out to one another, share one’s ideas and thoughts to empower each other by giving us a platform for global participation, it is extremely unfortunate that it is rather being used to degrade women by objectifying her. Hence, many innocent women are now a victim of such crime with many of them constantly being threatened.” The complainant further stated that the act of the said Facebook group is a clear infringement and violation of right.
July 6, 2021 has been fixed for further proceedings.
Meanwhile, Manipur State Commission for Women (MSCW) strongly condemned the Facebook group and their action, stating that they are becoming a parasite to the society.
In a release on Tuesday, MSCW chairperson Prof. Binota Meinam said that the commission has taken cognizance of a gross immoral activities perpetrated by one Yumnam Piba bearing facebook profile link: https://www.facebook.com/yumnam.piba by creating a private group on Facebook with around 27,000 members under the vulgarious title in Manipuri Kanglei Image Ka##bi, ###bi, ###bi nupising” (some letters are deleted for ethical reasons) which goes viral nowadays in social media.
“The intended meaning of the Title of the group is highly sexualised, suggesting the photos uploaded in the groups are of indigenous female prostitutes, with frontal nude photos,” it stated.
The commission contended that the private group openly challenges the set social norms and moral standards of the society and disgracing the modesty of the women, integrity of their body, morality of the society, amounting to breach of privacy and confidentiality, misrepresentation, publication for fraudulent purpose, publishing private image of others, without consent in social media as if there is no rule of law to monitor such serious cyber crime.
“This is a frontal attack to cyber security victimising many families, innocent women who are online with good intention,” it asserted.
The release also informed that the commission has directed the Director General of Police, Manipur to arrest the administrator of the group, which goes by the name “Yumnam Piba” and its associates and to erase the account.