On December 15, when social media content creator and ad agency employee Prashant’s phone started buzzing with notifications, he thought it was some recent post attracting a lot of engagement. However, his excitement soon turned into panic when he found out the reality.
Over the course of the next few days, Prashant and his partner, Shrishti, an educator by profession, would witness their lives get dissected to pieces on social media. The hounding and trauma that the content creator duo had to suffer for making a video on Israeli soldiers vacationing in India is just one part of the problem. The more crucial issue came up when they tried to address their problem legally. The challenges they faced there was a tell-tale indicator of gaping loopholes in the existing Indian legal framework to address cyberbullying, harassment and doxing.
A heap of personal information about them was scraped from the internet, leaked on platforms like X, and weaponised. Fabricated narratives were created to vilify Prashant’s queer identity. False claims about their personal life and professional conduct were disseminated. Emails were sent to Shrishti’s workplace with demands for her to be fired. Private email IDs, phone numbers and even office IDs were made public.
Over the course of their efforts to take legal action against their harassers, Shrishti and Prashant realised that social media platform policies and the Indian legal system offered little means to address such menaces.
How It All Started
On December 9, 2025, Shrishti and Prashant posted a video on Instagram on the practice of Israeli soldiers vacationing in India as part of their “Post-Army Big Trip” or detox holidays. Large numbers of Israeli soldiers travel to India every year, particularly to places like Goa, Dharamkot, Kasol, Pushkar, and Himachal, after completing their military service. These holidays are usually state-sanctioned. The couple states in their video that these destinations have developed Israeli enclaves and tourism infrastructure catering specifically to them, with some hostels displaying Israeli Defence Force (IDF) symbols.
This story was originally published in altnews.in. Read the full story here.
