EXPLAINED: What are Bulli Bai, Sulli Deals apps that sparked outrage?

The world has been transformed into a global village, thanks to technology. But, it has brought advantages and disadvantages as some mischievous elements are misusing the technology to satisfy their pervert nature by morphing the pictures of women and uploading them on the internet and apps.

Hyderabad: The world has been transformed into a global village, thanks to technology. But, it has brought advantages and disadvantages as some mischievous elements are misusing the technology to satisfy their pervert nature by morphing the pictures of women and uploading them on the internet and apps.

Many incidents of film stars and influential women lodging complaints with the cyber cell have been reported across the country many times. A similar incident was reported on the New Year where the doctored images of renowned Muslim women were uploaded on the 'Bulli Bai app, which created a massive uproar, and with the intervention of the IT Ministry hosting platform GitHub was blocked. Later, a 21-year-old man was detained from Bengaluru in connection with the ‘Bulli Bai’ application, the Mumbai police said on Monday.

Unfortunately, the New Year has begun on a bad note for Muslim women, as they have been targeted and their morphed images were uploaded on the 'Bulli Bai' app.

Based on a complaint lodged by the victim and woman scribe, the Ministry of IT took action and blocked the creators of the Bulli Bai app and an FIR was lodged by the Delhi police.

What is 'Sulli Deals' and 'Bulli Bai'? 'Sulli' is an unsavoury term used against women and the app had a tagline that says, 'Sulli deal of the day'. The app displayed morphed pictures of Muslim women and illegally auctioned them online. Six months later, 'Bulli Bai', another such app that was created for the same purpose was promoted on Twitter with the handle name - @bullibai.

'Bulli Bai' is similar to Sulli Deals and when one opened the app, a woman's face would appear randomly, who had a strong Twitter presence. However, the issue was raised by Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi and tagged Minister for IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on Twitter. Later, Priyanka Chaturvedi took the issue to the Mumbai police and demanded that the culprits be arrested immediately. Meanwhile, taking cognisance of the issue, the IT Ministry has taken action and blocked the creators of the 'Bulli Bai' app and an FIR has been lodged by the Delhi police.

It is learnt that images of Muslim women have been uploaded on the 'Bulli Bai' app on the hosting platform GitHub without their knowledge or consent. It may be recalled that this has happened after six months of the 'Sulli Deals' that took place in July 2021 where photos of Muslim women were uploaded without their consent.

Notably, 'Sulli Deals' targeted random Muslim women on social media, while 'Bulli Bai' targeted influential Muslim women, who have a presence online and voiced their concerns openly.

They uploaded doctored images of these women for sale online. Women, including journalists, social workers, students and famous personalities, were among those who were auctioned online.