Meet the man who helps delete revenge

Irsquom going to kill myselfrdquo The voice message left in the inbox of 32yearold Nakshatra Bagwe an awardwinning LGBTQiA filmmaker and actor on an October morning slammed the switch on a roller coaster ride that still has him trembling from the aftereffects Bagwe in addition to being a filmmaker travel business owner and party organiser is a social media influencer who helps take down videos from pornographic websites and social media platforms such as Instagram Telegram and Facebook put up by jilted lovers fraud online dating sites etcFor freeThe person who had left the chilling message was a 20yearold Indian student reaching out from a foreign university He described to Bagwe how a deeply humiliating video of him had been uploaded by someone on a porn site and he had no idea how to get it taken down The youngster said he would have to kill himself now as he didnrsquot know how to extricate himself from the mess he found himself inBagwe says ldquoI was ldquost scared because I had no way of getting in touch with the boyrsquos family or friends to tell them about his intention But sheer bravado had me respond to the boy requesting just 24 hours to get his video taken downrdquo That done Bagwe feverishly framed a plea to the site operators to have the video deleted ldquoI couldnrsquot sleep all night because I was so scared I kept checking every 30 minutes Finally within 12 hours the video was gone I cannot describe the relief and joyrdquo Bagwe says adding that relaying this wonderful piece of news to the youngster would remain among the high points of his lifeOn October 16 Bagwe decided to reupload a Reel on Instagram on his solutions to unique problems He didnrsquot think much of it considering that in its earlier avatar uploaded three months ago he used to get a mere threefour requests a month for help ldquoThese were mostly by the LGBTQiA communityrdquo said Bagwe ldquobecause it is easier to locate the source of such revenge videos in a tight group such as oursrdquoWhen Bagwe woke up on October 17 his followers had rocketed from 130 lakh to 160 lakh By that evening the number had reached four lakh As he is a social media influencer too these numbers meant everythingBut when Bagwe checked his DMs what he heard and read blew him away he says ldquoThere were voice messages from desperate women and men begging for help I began to listen to each one The helplessness and despair broke my heartrdquo Bagwe said ldquoI canrsquot forget the hushed whisper of one young girl saying lsquoMeri help kijiye nahin toh abbu mujhe maar dalengersquordquoSo what is Bagwersquos modus operandi ldquoI wish to make it very clear that I am not a hacker ethical or otherwise I only use the tools available to everyone if they looked in the right placerdquoBagwe makes use of grievance redressal mechanisms of social media platforms drawing their attention to the objectionable content and asking them to delete it The process is tedious but is known to get results Meta for example has a team that deliberates on such requests and even an appellate board if the first decision is not satisfactory to the userldquoI do however have one strong weapon in my arsenal in that I use some strong key words to get the administrators of these sites and apps to address my grievance immediately The words are a trade secret but my success rate is quite highrdquo he saysEvery case is special Bagwe says and he does not ignore anyone who has reached out for help Bagwe says he has managed to help over 100 people so far but there are over 8000 requests pending in his Instagram DM inbox He reveals that Instagram Telegram and Facebook are all slow to respond but the right words in the plea help get their attention WhatsApp however is notoriously hard to reach which is where the cyber police could help but they seem to lack the willldquoThis help comes at a personal price thoughrdquo says Bagwe ldquoPeople also leave abuse because sometimes the resolution is not as fast as they would like I find that it deeply affects my mental health and I have to take regular breaks in order to allow myself to wind down from the emotional battering But I do not resent it I see this as giving back to societyrdquoHe adds that he will soon be creating a Reel showing people how they could get the videos taken down themselvesldquoPorn sites have a feature for viewers to themselves delete objectionable content Other social media sites though need some work and patiencerdquo he signs off8KNo of requests pending in Bagwersquos inbox