Her Stories: What Will Facebook Do When Asked To Protect Women In India Who Call Out Sexual Abuse?

Dear readers,

A defamation case in India is pitting a powerful man against an anonymous Instagram account that shared the stories of sexual assault. The ensuing legal battle could strip away one of the most important things for women who want to speak out about abuse: anonymity.

“Anonymity can be a powerful tool in protecting free speech,” said HuffPost India technology editor Gopal Sathe, who reported on the contentious case with audience and engagement editor Nehmat Kaur. 

The case is addressing many complicated issues, including data privacy, survivor advocacy and government intervention in tech. 

People around the world are watching the case closely to see how Facebook will respond. The U.S., U.K., Australia and other governments have been pressuring the company to make it easier for law enforcement to identify its users, and now this case against a group of daring Indian women might just make that possible.

“Although companies like Facebook and Twitter often position themselves as enabling social movements, what we know is that the big tech companies are all harvesting and analyzing the most minute details about each of us, and this puts us all at risk the moment they decide that complying with a government order to invade privacy makes good business sense,” Gopal said.

Without a guarantee of anonymity, abuse survivors who want to warn other people about a perpetrator’s behavior may be less likely to speak out.

“In India, thousands of women implicitly trusted Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with their stories of harassment and assault,” Nehmat said. “Now they’re in a position where they’re relying on a profit-seeking, technically amoral corporation to act in ideological and ethical ways to protect their identities.”