Hyderabad: Personal comments cross a line the moment they are dismissed as a joke, said actress Anasuya Bharadwaj during a panel discussion held as part of the year-long ‘Stand With Her’ campaign, initiated by the Women’s Safety Wing of the Telangana Police in partnership with TOI. This month’s discussion focused on digital dignity, boundaries, and responsible online behaviour.“Digital dignity for me is simple. If you cannot say what you said in a comment to someone’s face, do not say it online either. The moment you dismiss it as a joke, you have already crossed a line,” Anasuya said.The actress said she fought online abuse largely alone, as the scale of the menace frightened many women into silence. “I used to get DMs from several young women supporting me privately, as they were too scared to face the same consequences if they did so publicly. But this narrative needs to change. More people should stand up for victims of abuse,” she said, adding that bystander culture needed to end.She also pointed to age-shaming as a specific and persistent form of abuse. “It comes from a deep-seated desire to favour younger women. This is a serious problem and needs to be identified. This moralising from a patriarchal perspective will only create more perpetrators of abuse against women in the future.”‘Silence is also violence’Director general of police Charu Sinha, who heads the Women’s Safety Wing, said the harm being discussed goes beyond dramatic crimes. “The most common harm online is not in the form of sexual harassment. We are talking about small, repeatable behaviours that slowly shape what is seen as normal in online spaces,” she said.Forwarding screenshots, laughing at humiliating memes, age-shaming, tagging someone to embarrass them, and turning a private moment into group entertainment — she listed these as part of that pattern.She also placed responsibility on the audience, not just the person posting. “Online culture is not built by just one person posting something. It is shaped more by the audience — through reactions, forwards, ‘Bro, it’s funny,’ or even silence.” She added that staying quiet was not a neutral act. “Silence online can never be neutral. Others read it as permission.” Ajay Radha Kumar, an anti-caste content creator with a private TV channel, put it more bluntly: “Silence is also violence.” The ‘Stand With Her’ campaign is a men-led prevention initiative, said Assia Sherwani, Change Management Practitioner and Training Head at Women’s Safety Wing. “Women’s safety, well-being, and full participation in society, the economy, and politics are a shared social responsibility of both men and women,” she said.
