A tech professional from Bengaluru has stirred up controversy on social media after he created a thread featuring Diwali images of women and shared it on X (formerly Twitter), captioning the post, “All the Diwali patakas on Twitter. A thread. Thank me later.” While “pataka” translates to “firecracker” in Hindi, it is often used to imply attractiveness. Many users criticized the post, calling it objectifying and inappropriate.
The post quickly went viral, gathering over 3.8 million views, with widespread backlash from users who found the thread disrespectful. Several women included in the thread expressed discomfort at being spotlighted without consent and chose to either delete their posts or switch their profiles to private settings. One commenter noted, “He’s assembled a list of women’s Diwali pictures, calling them ‘Patakas’… many have now gone private or removed their posts to avoid unwanted attention.”
The techie, however, defended his actions by pointing out that he simply quoted public posts without downloading the images. He added, “If anyone has issues with how quotes work, make your account private or escalate this to Elon.” Despite his response, calls for action grew as some tagged Bengaluru police, describing the thread as a form of online harassment and calling for stronger privacy enforcement.
The incident has sparked fresh debate on social media etiquette, privacy rights, and respect for personal content online.
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