Keeping quiet is not the solution, says Prerna whose Facebook post against harassment went viral

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The fact that people reported against her post with the charges of ‘nudity’ does not shock her as much as the fact that Facebook actually removed it.

“People are entitled to their own opinions and that’s alright but what baffled me was that there are so many posts on Facebook with graphical nudity, and yet mine was removed on account of one word,” said Prerna.

Prerna Pratham Singh, whose Facebook post against her online harasser went viral (Photo courtesy: Prerna)

Prerna, who is currently working with several people and the cyber cell to contact Facebook and get her post back up online, said that she never expected the response to her post to be so overwhelming. At the same time, she says that this whole issue remains far from personal.

“There are no boundaries in the virtual space. Photos of school going kids are cropped and photoshopped as the faces of porn. What I was trying to convey through exposing the man harassing me was not exclusively related to Facebook, nor was it intended to be a personal propaganda or vendetta. My intention was to raise a voice against the entire issue of cyber bullying and harassment – both virtual as well real,” she said.

To anyone who has gone through anything remotely close to cyber bullying, Prerna said that it’s “absolutely justifiable” to speak up against it. “Keeping quiet is not the solution. If nobody challenges back it just makes the situation worse by encouraging people to continue doing wrong to others.”

Prerna may not have anticipated the response, but she hopes that her actions result in triggering the larger debate of cyber bullying among masses. “I want to assert that this is not personal. The issue here is cyber bullying and harassment, that should not be trivialized. As soon as people start putting names, the main issue gets sidelined and I don’t want that,” she said.

The fact is that many people, irrespective of gender, get such harassing messages with texts ranging from ‘Do you wanna be friends?’ to out rightly offensive, with photos of some stranger’s genitals, or some other form of it every day. But we choose to ignore, day after day. Prerna only asks a simple question – what is the limit?