Women associated with the Cockroach Janta Party-led student protests have become targets of an organised-looking wave of online harassment, with manipulated photographs, artificial intelligence-generated images and calls to identify or punish participants circulating across social media platforms.The abuse intensified after the movement withdrew its Jantar Mantar agitation on July 25, following weeks of demonstrations over examination paper leaks, recruitment failures and demands for political accountability. Photographs of young women attending the protests were cropped from videos, stripped of context and republished with accusatory captions.
One widely circulated message read: “Find her. She abused Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” Other posts sought personal details about protesters, urged police action and portrayed women as immoral, politically manipulated or hostile to the country.
Some accounts paired genuine faces with fabricated bodies or clothing, while others presented entirely synthetic women as CJP participants. A viral image claiming to show a woman in revealing clothing at the Jantar Mantar demonstration was found to have been generated using AI and had no connection to the protest.
The campaign has raised concerns that women who participate in political movements face risks extending beyond conventional trolling. The material can expose them to doxxing, stalking, threats and lasting reputational damage, even when the original posts are removed.
Maharashtra’s cyber authorities identified 429 social media handles or individual posts spreading false or derogatory material during the CJP mobilisation. The content appeared across Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube. At least 140 of the flagged items were produced using AI, indicating that synthetic media had become a significant component of the information battle surrounding the protests.
The figures covered misinformation linked to the wider agitation and were not limited to attacks on women. They nevertheless showed how quickly AI tools were being deployed to manufacture protest scenes, invent quotations and create misleading portrayals of demonstrators.
False images had circulated even before the protest ended. Fabricated photographs purported to show police officers making statements, protesters behaving provocatively and public figures taking positions they had not expressed. Detection tools used on one supposed police photograph indicated with more than 97 per cent confidence that it was AI-generated.
The targeting of women marked a more personal stage in that campaign. Rather than challenging the CJP’s demands, the posts focused on appearance, clothing, character and identity. Several used close-up screenshots captured from livestreams, making participants identifiable to large online audiences.
The CJP emerged in May after political communications strategist Abhijeet Dipke turned the description of unemployed young people as “cockroaches” into a satirical symbol of resistance. The movement drew support from students angered by examination irregularities, unemployment and the pressure surrounding competitive tests.
Its online reach expanded rapidly, helping organisers mobilise supporters without relying on established political structures. Humour, memes and irreverent criticism of those in power became central to its appeal, while women appeared prominently in demonstrations, videos and discussions.
That visibility also made them easy targets for hostile networks searching protest footage for individual faces. Women who were not formal organisers were sometimes presented as leaders or spokespersons, increasing the possibility that strangers could direct abuse towards people with little ability to respond publicly.
Digital rights specialists have long warned that manipulated imagery can silence women by making public participation personally costly. Unlike political criticism, gendered disinformation often combines ideological hostility with sexual humiliation, threats and attempts to involve relatives, employers or educational institutions.
The attacks came as the political fallout from the agitation continued. CJP representatives accused authorities in several states of pursuing students after assurances that participants would not be punished.
US-Saudi strikes reignite wider Middle East war 