Criticised Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor? Online bullying gets a misogynistic shade with AI

X user Alifya, who criticised Ranbir’s look as Ram in Ramayana, was harassed by his fan groups. She was forced to take a hiatus from the social media platform for a while after. Illustration/Uday Mohite

Very few adages have been romanticised as much as ‘Everything is fair in love and war'. In 2024, however, it seems to have acquired a new definition for fans of film stars, at least virtually. Blood stained letters are no longer an extreme expression of obsession - threatening and humiliating the person who critiqued your idol is.

And AI is happy to help.

Technological advancements are a tool also for the most regressive part of someone's psyche. As a result, women online find themselves at the receiving end of harassment by a celebrity's fans, who use AI to sexualise them. Almost a month ago, a female cinephile logged into her X account and found her photographs morphed on sexually-explicit memes and film scenes being circulated by a bunch of accounts. What did they have in common? All of them were offended by her criticism of Ranbir Kapoor's look leaked from his upcoming film, Ramayana.

Entertainment journalist Samina Shaikh encountered a similar incident when a group of X users who weren't pleased by her social media silence on the trailer release of Shah Rukh Khan's 2023 release, Dunki. Trolls morphed her images into pornographic content with the help of AI. Since SRK is active on X, she tagged him repeatedly, but it didn't help.

"It's one thing to be a fan, but when admiration turns into harassment and bullying, it crosses a line," Alfiya told mid-day. Alfiya, an active X user, stayed away from social media for a few days.

"It was overwhelming and I logged out for a while to protect my mental health. During this time, I focused on offline activities, sought support from friends and family, and practiced self-care," she said. She also reported the incident through the official cybercrime reporting portal. She is back on social media platforms, but she has yet to get any update about her complaint.

"I have filed multiple complaints, and even made a post and asked everyone to tag the cybercrime police. Their handle, @MahaCyber1, sent me a private message on X me to say that I register a complaint online, which I've already done, but have yet to get a response," she shared.

Samina Shaikh Saroj, Apeksha Saroj and Anubhav Bhasin

Delhi-based lawyer Anubhav Bhasin says there has been a spike in cybercrime cases related to AI and deepfake lately. "AI is being misused in general, however, it can be said that it is more detrimental to a woman's reputation and privacy. Online Abuse is rampant and affecting every individual," he said.

Clinical psychologist Apeksha Saroj says people form such a deep attachment to public figures that an attack on their favourite celebrity is seen as an attack on them. "When people resonate with the image of a celebrity, it becomes aspirational. They feel fiercely protective of that image. Any word against that image, that celebrity, is taken personally and they lose any tolerance to criticism and become aggressive," she says.

The targeted harassment against women, Saroj believes, could be because society has yet not become comfortable with opinionated women. "Earlier, women didn't voice out their pain," she says. Now they are vocal about their opinions. And it can be seen that people can't tolerate that." Besides morphing pictures, male aggression manifests online in relentless abuse and collective bullying of people using misogyny and a false notion of manhood as tools. Saroj says this anger is directly proportional to repression that one harbours. "The unemployment rate is anyway too high in the country," she says, "So, people find the internet an outlet to vent out all this. To add to this, if they see a YouTuber from their school and surroundings who has gotten popular, they feel jealous, and that contributes to the aggression."

Entertainment journalist Samina Shaikh encountered a similar incident when a group of X users who weren't pleased by her social media silence on the trailer release of Shah Rukh Khan's 2023 release, Dunki.

"Trolls morphed my images into pornographic content with the help of AI," she says. "Since the actor is active on X, I chose to tag him repeatedly, but it didn't help. Hence, I had to take the help of police officials to resolve this matter."

While she filed a complaint with the Mumbai cybercrime cell, the process that followed left her disillusioned. "I filed the complaint at a nearby police station. It was a three-and-half-hour process with an assurance that the case would be resolved and the culprits would be put behind the bars, but nothing of that sort has happened. It was an offline as well as online complaint to the Mumbai Police department, and I'm still following up on this as none of these ‘No face, no identity' users have been traced by the cops," she sighs.

Anonymity is the biggest weapon for the accused, says Saroj. "There are no repercussions so they do it brazenly," she says. "Even if I morph someone's picture and they report me, I can make a new profile. It's easy to be brave on the Internet. You wouldn't be able to do such a thing in real life because you would face repercussions then and there. There needs to be some regulation in place, in terms of law as well by social media platforms."

Saroj also believes that parents need to monitor their children's social media usage so that such behaviours can be caught early on. "So many of these boys, who use AI to morph images of women, turn out to be minors," she says. "Youngsters tell us they don't like it when their parents keep an eye on them. So, parents have to tread carefully. The right word is monitoring. Sensitivity begins at home. Parents need to have open conversations with their children."

Saroj also adds that the youth idolises the idea of fame and doesn't care if it's rooted in ill behaviour. "When their negative comment on a celebrity's post is highlighted, it gives them fame. If the celebrity replies to them, they get attention and more follows."

A celebrity publicist says technology cannot be blamed for inherent misogyny, but the easy accessibility of AI has definitely become a tool that fans now weaponise against anyone who criticise their favourite stars. "AI definitely has accelerated online bullying, but this menace has long been a part of the virtual world. The culture of online bullying has grown in the last decade," they said. "The increased Internet accessibility mirrors the negatives of our society as much as the positives. Hiding behind the screen brings out the worst in some people, and fan culture is the most obvious display of this. While online bullying has long prevailed, AI has given an impetus to the toxicity. Earlier you would write a hateful message or issue threats, that soon escalated to the use of Photoshop. While Photoshop or morphing imagery needs a specific skill set and time, AI does the job in a matter of seconds."

The publicist also shares that many times online fanwars are initiated by movie stars and their teams exploiting fan obsession, and churning the angst. "PR teams are not necessarily in the loop of day-to-day fan wars," they said, "They are only called to action if there is a budding controversy or crisis fuelled by such online wars. Depending on the situation, they either have to clean it up or build an alternate narrative often using bots to seed comments or via influencer activations. Paid trends and polls are also activated to create perception."

Not all is lost, Bhasin says. The lawyer, who has dealt with many such cases, says the law is strict for criminals under The Indian Penal Code, IT Act and Representation of Women Act, but the challenge remains in nabbing the alleged offenders, who use fake accounts.

"Once the accused is caught, s/he can be punished under the Indian Penal Code, IT Act, Representation of Women Act, etc," he says. "If there is sufficient evidence, the law gives enough credence to the victim's statement, so it will not be so easy to get away. However, it is difficult to catch the perpetrators with the limited resources available with the police. The offence is committed by an unknown person, and tracing the accused becomes a big challenge. Technology is ever changing and evolving, and cybercrime cells need to evolve with them. In such cases, I have often been told that the IP address is from another country. Therefore, identifying and nabbing the accused remains the biggest challenge. It will take some time but since law is dynamic, it will definitely happen. As long as the accused can be identified and caught, the law will take its course. Unfortunately, major changes happen after major events. Criminal law was amended after the Delhi gang rape. I hope preventive measures are taken before another such major event occurs."