Rana Ayyub on online harassment in India: ‘I get daily rape & death threats’
As Media freedom faces ‘a downward spiral’ around the world, many journalists, particularly women, face increased online harassment. Assault and intimidation become ever more sophisticated with advances in technology, and have profound effects not only on the journalistic output, but also the well-being of individual journalists. Rana Ayyub, a prominent investigative journalist from India, has been experiencing daily rape and death threats following the publication of ‘Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up’ in 2016. GEN spoke to Ayyub about how the system of online harassment functions in India, how it has affected her personally, and what solutions she found along the way.
Edited by Global Editors Network
GEN: After publishing “Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up” in 2016 and exposing the role of the local police, bureaucrats and politicians in the Gujarat riots, you have faced increased harassment online and offline on a daily basis. What has been the nature of this harassment and how has it changed over the past three years?
Rana Ayyub: I have been one of the most trolled women on Indian social media. In 2010, I got the first serving Home minister of a state arrested. The man is now the President of the ruling party and the Home Minister of India. My life was made a living hell. I was subjected to a concerted hate campaign. The right-wing trolls generated fake tweets in my name, suggesting that I hate India and I support Islamic terrorism. I was doxed. My number and address were leaked on social media, on facebook, twitter and instagram. A porn video with my image morphed on it was circulated all over the country. On a daily basis I get rape threats, death threats, I get calls in the middle of the night threatening to kill me. The barrage of hate that I get online has now also started affecting my line offline.
Tehelka as well as other publishers and newspapers refused to publish your findings after approaching them. How would you characterise the media landscape in India and its relationship with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party?
In India, the media is prostrating without being asked to bend. It has self-censored itself to the extent that it does not even believe in writing facts as they exist. My book “Gujarat Files” was never meant to be a book. It was an undercover operation of eight months when I posed as an American filmmaker exposing Modi and his ministers. That investigation was refused publication not just by my employers, but also by every news publication in India. I had to eventually self-publish it in the form of a book, which has been one of the biggest bestsellers. But despite this, independent journalists like me, who are critical of the leadership, do not find the space to write in Indian publications.
How does the system of online harassment against journalists function in India? What institutions, tools or technologies feed and facilitate it?
In India, misogyny and patriarchy are inherent in the abuse targeting women journalists. Photoshopping their images with men and using “deep fakes” to create pornographic videos and using twitter to heap misogynistic abuse are the most common forms of intimidation. When they cannot question journalists with facts, they resort to character assassination. Facebook and twitter are the most handy platforms which allow them to spread fake news and nudity with impunity.
As Facebook struggles to combat online harassment in India, where do you see changes that need to be made both in terms of Facebooks’s internal moderation policies as well as the India’s legal framework?
Facebook in India is drowning with hate speech and Islamophobia. Posts critical of the ruling dispensation are censored or removed. I have myself experienced this. I tried to boost a column that I wrote that was critical of Narendra Modi. That advert was rejected by Facebook. Hate and misinformation against journalists and activists, including death threats are spread on Facebook like an epidemic. Like in Myanmar, where facebook was used to instigate hatred against the Rohingyas, in India Facebook is being used to fuel hatred against the Muslim minorities.
As we’re seeing increased harassment of journalists all over the globe, like in the Philippines or Mexico, where do you see systemic convergence between other countries and India? Where do you see differences?
I see a great deal of similarity between Duterte’s Philippines and Modi’s India. Each time I and the journalist Maria Ressa from the Philippines sit and talk on a panel, it feels like we are mirroring each other. In both countries, the state is targeting journalists using platforms that were meant to embolden and amplify independent, critical voices. The cyber crime authorities in mine and Maria Ressa’s case are a part of the system and have refused to take action against the death threats and the obscenity to which we are subjected online. In both cases, the governments and the leaders have decided to brazen it out and have been complicit in the hate that is peddled on social media to intimidate, silence and maim journalists.
There is increasing awareness about trauma and self-care for journalists. What are your thoughts on this and how do you deal with online harassment?
I have faced two nervous breakdowns, have been under psychiatric care for eight years, popping anti anxiety pills and palpitations. When they released a porn video with my image morphed on it, I was admitted to hospital with palpitation and high blood pressure. It was life threatening. The mental trauma that journalists endure is something that we do not talk about enough. It is one thing to talk about self care, and another — to help journalists, especially independent journalists, and ensure that they don’t pay a price for the journalism they wish to do. The mental intimidation that we suffer on a daily basis is something I do not wish to my worst enemy.
Which local or regional initiatives that seek to combat online harassment against journalists and especially women in journalism are you following right now?
I follow the work of organisations such as Reporters Without Borders, Committee to Protect Journalists, International Women’s Media Foundation, and the UN special rapporteurs, who have been doing a fabulous job of campaigning against online harassment. They have been one of my biggest supporters in the most testing times and helped amplify my fight against online harassment. I think GEN also has played a big role in strengthening the voices of journalists, especially women, who have been a target of concerted online harassment.
Rana Ayyub is a prominent Indian investigative journalist and a political writer and an important voice from South Asia. She has worked as a reporter, editor and columnist with some of the leading publications in India and internationally. Her pieces appear in the Washington Post, New York Times, Guardian and Foreign Policy among other publications.
She was an Editor with Tehelka which was India’s topmost investigative magazine. She has reported on religious violence, extrajudicial killings by the state, insurgency and authored an international bestseller titled “Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover-Up’, an undercover investigation which exposes the complicity of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in state-sponsored genocide. In a career spanning twelve years Rana has been awarded the Sanskriti award for integrity and excellence in journalism from the President of India. She was the recipient of the Global Shining Light award for Investigative journalism in the year 2017 and the Most Resilient Global Journalist of 2018 at the Peace Palace in Hague. She has also been named by Time magazine among ten global journalists who face maximum threats to their lives. Rana is based in Mumbai.
