Humans of Hindutva founder shuts down Facebook page after reportedly receiving death threats

Humans of Hindutva, a Facebook page which created satirical, parody posts about India’s political and social climate, and in particular right-wing fundamentalism, has been taken down on the evening of 28 December by its founder after he reportedly received death threats directed at his family.

“I’m quitting of my own accord. I’ve not been banned or mass reported. I have recently received some threats to my life which I can’t take lightly. I am outnumbered, live in a BJP state and come from a middle-class family with no political or police connections. I have no desire to end up like Gauri Lankesh or Afrazul Khan. Actually, more than myself I worry for the safety of my family. I hope those who threatened me consider this as a victory and leave us alone. I have deleted the HOH page and will delete this website soon. Congratulations to Hindutva for winning this David vs Goliath fight. As for those who were kind enough to lend me their ears for the last eight months, I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year. Cheers and alvida. Thanks for giving me some of your time,” he wrote in a final post, as quoted by The Wire .

Jairaj Singh, the editor of DailyO, tweeted about the exact nature of threats that the founder had received.

Had a brief chat with my friend who runs the Humans of Hindutva page. He told me that trolls have got a hold of his phone number and they're sending him death threats. He's scared for his wife and children, so he's shut the page for now. The nation can't take a joke.

— Jairaj Singh (@JairajSinghR) December 28, 2017

But this is hardly the first time that the founder has been at the receiving end of hate and vicious comments. In an interview with Firstpost, he spoke about being at the receiving end of hate from trolls, and how he had given up on answering them or countering them. “When the hundreds of comments turned into thousands, I put my hands up. Now, I just delete and ban people who use racial abuse or personally attack me. At the end of the day, it is my page and I’m not going to participate in my own abuse and neither will I allow the abuse of others. It is the only space where I yield some authority so I’d be a fool to not exercise it,” he said.

In September this year, the founder briefly  deactivated the page ; his farewell message read: “I’m tired of explaining the intention behind my words again and again and again. Your interaction with me has opened up a side inside that I didn’t even know existed but in the bargain it has exhausted me no end. So I bid you goodbye. Cheers.”

The decision to take down the page in September came days after the assassination of right-wing critic and journalist Gauri Lankesh. The HOH founder said that running the page was not worth taking “a bullet in my head”. But he decided to reactivate the page because of the response of people who had been following the page.

“I did plan on leaving and put up a goodbye post after a rather rough night. But when I woke up, I saw that several media outlets had covered my page. And the reaction of the right-wing to these numerous articles made me realise why I started this page in the first place. Many were gloating about how the fear of a bullet worked and that dissenters should take note. Many abused me outright. Some were even saying that I probably ran out of material… I guess to stop now would be to play into the hands of the fascists I despise, so I guess I’ll keep this going for a little longer,” he said to Indian Express .

In June, Humans of Hindutva was blocked by Facebook first for 24 hours and then for three days, for violating the social media platform’s community standards. It had been reported by multiple users for a post on General Bipin Rawat and his comment on Kashmiri protesters. In an article published by DailyO, the founder spoke about how the audience was responding to posts which are meant to be satire. “The problem is that average, unaffiliated Facebook users like me are now against a dedicated collective that wants to muzzle our voices by employing the tools that you had incorporated in order to check abuse,” he wrote.

“I find it funny that these people can’t see that this page is just a guy making stupid jokes and some of it is resonating with people who are like-minded. It’s that simple… I started this page mainly to make myself laugh. If some of the posts seem in poor taste, then it’s because the retrograde ideas that those posts ridicule are in poor taste to begin with. Besides, if you’re more offended with an obvious joke on casteism than you are with actual casteism then you need to set your priorities straight,” he said to Firstpost.