Weeks after Humans Of Bombay was in the eye of a storm after they filed a case against another storytelling platform -- People Of India -- for copyright infringement, the company's founder and CEO Karishma Mehta has revealed that she faced rape and death threats while the legal dispute was on.
She strongly condemned online trolls who not only bullied her and her team but also took things a step too far. "The public response included bullying and a slew of personal attacks, including death and rape threats towards me, my team, and my family," Ms Mehta said in a long statement, titled Our Story, on Instagram.
"While we did not expect to be vilified to this extent, it will not deter us from continuing to tell important stories that change the narrative, and sometimes, even change lives," Ms Mehta further said.
The entrepreneur also shed light on what led to the Humans Of Bombay dragging another platform to the court. She said that her company's case was about "substantial imitation", adding they had no other option but to take the legal route because POI "didn't stop the plagiarism", despite being flagged by META.
However, people in the comments once again targeted Ms Mehta and accused her of playing the "victim card".
"It's just sad how using the line 'getting rape threats' has been made so common. I pity the real victims who get these threats, it no longer sounds alarming. This is an A+ marketing and victimization campaign from HOB," read a comment.
"Come on no one gave you, your team & your family rape threats. Stop playing the women victim card always by putting death, rape kind of words. Learn and move on," said another person in their comment.
A third added, "That's a cheap use of the victim card; they would go to court over a copied post, but such heinous threats and criminal activities remain unreported to the police. Then, after facing public humiliation and international outrage for suing innocent people, their apology reeks of stubborn arrogance."
According to the Humans Of Bombay plea, People of India allegedly used films from HOB's Instagram and YouTube channels without permission. Besides that, Ms Mehta's platform claimed that the People of India also emulated their unique storytelling format without authorisation.
