A 16-year-old queer artist from Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain died by suicide following thousands of hate comments on an Instagram reel the artist posted, an actor has claimed.
Pranshu, a 16-year-old queer artist from Ujjain, was a self-taught makeup artist from Ujjain and had an Instagram account where they posted makeup and beauty content. On Diwali, the 16-year-old posted an Instagram transition reel in a sari.
‘Made In Heaven’ actor from the web series Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju alleged that the artist’s comment section was flooded with over 4,000 homophobic comments pushing them to commit suicide. The artist had more than 16,500 followers on their Instagram handle ‘glamitupwithpranshu’.
Actor Trinetra said online platforms such as Meta-owned Instagram have repeatedly failed to provide a safe space for people from the LGBTQ community and claimed that #JusticeForPranshu “doesn’t have posts because some violate community guidelines”.
Several members of the LGBTQ community expressed their sadness, calling platforms like Instagram, X and Facebook inadequate to tackle cyberbullying.
Nagjhiri police station chief KS Gehlot said the exact reason behind the suicide was yet to be established and an investigation into the matter was underway, the Free Press Journal reported.
Arthur Bejar, a former Meta executive who left the organization in 2021, claimed that Instagram is “fundamentally misleading” the public about the safety of its platform for teens. Testifying before US senators earlier this month, Mr Bejar said Instagram is “categorically not” suitable for children aged 13 and over.
“I had firsthand experience of ignoring what could be described as statistically significant research” suggesting that millions of teens were experiencing safety issues while using Meta’s apps, he said