YouTube channel Liberal Doge, which did a live online auction and rating of Pakistani women in May 2021, was terminated by YouTube once again, after the channel was revived earlier this month. The YouTube live video of the auction is said to have inspired the GitHub apps Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals, which did a similar auction of Twitter accounts of Indian Muslim women, who would then be subjected to trolling and harassment.
"We take the safety of our users very seriously and have strict policies that prohibit hate speech on YouTube, including content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on gender and religion among other attributes. Liberal Doge was terminated for violation of our Hate Speech policy, and all circumvention attempts will be in violation of our Terms of Service. We have therefore removed the channel flagged by BoomLive," a YouTube spokesperson told BOOM.
The channel, which was allegedly run by an individual named Ritesh Jha, had uploaded a few videos ridden with expletives and Islamophobia.
In one of the videos, titled, "Liberal Doge Deleted Video on Sulli Deal, Live Stream and Bulli Bai Perspective by Ritesh Jha", the user tried to call out Newslaundry for publishing his real name, along with his location.
In yet another video, titled, "Liberal Doge is Back", the user claims that he did nothing wrong in doing the online auction of Muslim women on YouTube, and that some of the women were complicit in the act. "Some of the women were messaging me to rate them as well," he claimed. He also stated that he was 'mentally harassed' by media organisations and news anchors who had reported about him. At the end of the video, he said he shall make more such videos soon.
Who Is Ritesh Jha?
Following the online auction of Muslim women on YouTube live last year, Newslaundry conducted an online investigation which revealed the person running the Liberal Doge account to be an individual named Ritesh Jha.
Newslaundry found that the Jha, originally from Bihar, was a 23-year-old resident of DLF Phase 2 in Gurugram.
Along with the Liberal Doge channel, Jha also ran the channels Secular Doge, Father Doge and Secular Doge Vlogs. All the channels have been terminated by YouTube for circumvention of terms of service.
Mumbai Police cyber cell recently arrested three more individuals for running a Clubhouse meet where derogatory remarks along with rape threats were made against Muslim women - 19-year-old Akash Suyal from Karnal, 21-year-old Jaishnav Kakkar from Faridabad, and 22-year-old Yash Parashar.
Following these arrests, sources in the police told The Print that they are currently looking for Jha in relation to the Liberal Doge channel, and also added that he is currently 'absconding'.
Recently, Jha had also created a Twitter account with his real name and the handle @iRiteshJhaa, which has now been deleted (you can view an archive of the account here). In one of his latest posts before deletion (which was pinned by his handle), Jha put out a statement apologising to the women he had harassed during the YouTube live last year. This post was made days after he put up one of his latest video on the revived YouTube channel, where he stated that he had done nothing wrong.
May 2020 Live Stream
On May 13, 2021, the LiberalDoge channel did a livestream, where he put out photos and videos of Muslim women from Pakistan and India. The event was initially promoted on YouTube by the user as "Eid Special", but eventually spilled on to Twitter as an auctioning of the women's profiles.
The Hindi description of the Youtube video read, "Today, we will stalk women with our lust-filled eyes (Aaj apni tharak bhari ankho se ladkiyan tarenge)."
After the images of the women were put up, those conducting the live would then 'rate' them, and 'auction' them off to each other.
According to an article by The Print, users @giyu2002, @Pinakishiv3, and @sullideals101 were involved in a social media exchange on this topic.
According to the police investigations done by Mumbai Police and Delhi Police, Twitter handle @giyu2002 was run by 21-year-old Neeraj Bishnoi, while @sullideals was run by 24-year-old Aumkareshwar Thakur.
Bishnoi has been arrested for creating the Bulli Bai aap, while Thakur has been arrested for creating Sulli Deals.