[vignesh_146]

lol this happened at my college (IIT delhi). He's being disengeious in the blog, the reason they made him take the site down is cos people writing some really really bad things about students, and Obv that should not be allowed at a place for higher education. Be more mature.

[Dylan16807]

> He's being disengeious in the blog, the reason they made him take the site down is cos people writing some really really bad things about students

I don't understand what you mean. The blog is very clear about that being the problem.

[margalabargala]

The blog is very clear about the author understanding that other people were saying it was a problem.

The blog is also very clear that the author, personally, does not understand why this is a problem.

[Dylan16807]

You have a perfectly fine point about the blog post in general but for the discussion of whether it's disingenuous that part doesn't matter.

[margalabargala]

Yes exactly. We were already in agreement, and I built upon your earlier point.

[vignesh_146]

I meant he's being disengeious in being surprised about the dean. like this should have been obvious to him, obv if you make something like this, you will face consequences...

[Dylan16807]

The only surprise I see related to the dean is around getting his phone grabbed, which seems like legitimate surprise.

[ipython]

That, and after acting like a complete asshole, running straight to daddy the minute the shit hits the fan. And bawling like a complete pussy when he crosses into the “find out” part of FAFO.

[selfmodruntime]

Guy writes a website that scrapes data of people without their permission, is repeatedly warned by authority and uni personnel to stop, doesn't and then writes a piece on unfair treatment. Shucks.

[jjmarr]

I don't think he's being disingenuous. OP is transparent they started a campus gossip website inspired by The Social Network.

> I had scraped data for all students at IIT Delhi, and made a profile for all of them.

> anyone could make an anonymous account, and then comment anything on anyone's profile. Each profile also had 4 fields, where you could tag anyone, in the "has dated", "crushing on", "crushed on by" or "haters" category.

I am surprised that OP, having seen that movie and quoting lines from it during his meeting with the administration, didn't see this coming.

> also at one point i literally said the social network dialogue, " I feel like i deserve some recognition from you guys"

[vignesh_146]

I meant he's being disengeious in being surprised about the dean. like this should have been obvious to him, obv if you make something like this, you will face consequences...

[kylehotchkiss]

for real, IIT is difficult enough, last thing it needs is a "tea" situation, avoiding nonsense trends like that goes a long way towards more prosperous futures for everybody.

[busymom0]

What's a "tea" situation?

[xigoi]

I think they are talking about the popular app that also creates profiles of people without their consent and allows publicly defamating them.

https://www.teaforwomen.com/

[kylehotchkiss]

Situations where gossip is the goal, not happenstance (https://cassettesofradhika.medium.com/spill-the-चाय-aabbc2cb...) - somebody feel free to correct me there if I'm mis-explaining it

[1whizkid1]

its really not as difficult or glim of a place as everyone’s making itout to be. Its literally a uni. And all i had done was make a site where people were talking about their friends and batchmates and telling gossip (which btw anon insta pages exist, reddit exists, i just made something better) most of which was not bad things. Why is everyone so dramatic. Like im seriously asking, over 200 ppl are shitting on me in that thread but i didnt feel bad at all, why is one bad comment on you such a big deal that you have to shut my site down

[kylehotchkiss]

hey man, you're obviously smart and have a lot of potential. It's just about using that for something productive that builds society and people up. This is one of those things that'll make sense 10 years from now when you look back at it.

[1whizkid1]

How is some people writing bad things about some students a valid reason to make me take my website down? like iit should honestly have been proud of me for building something cool, which over 80% of their uni is using. instead of threatening to kick me out...

[rybosome]

It's incredible to me that you don't feel any responsibility for a platform that you created. What happens on the platform is shaped directly by the choices you make as its creator - to be anonymous or identifiable, what the topics of discussion are, whether moderation happens.

By allowing anonymous commentary, scraping every student's data and seeding the conversation around "rumors", you created an environment that is perfect for targeted harassment. You created the platform and maintained it; what happens on that platform is absolutely your responsibility.

I highly recommend that you take this opportunity to do some introspection and consider why so many people were upset.

[mcphage]

> consider why so many people were upset.

Were there lots of people upset? Or was it a small number of people with power who were upset? Like, I'm not at all surprised by how this played out, but it's not clear that anyone was upset beyond some people who don't take well to criticism.

[kstrauser]

Say hypothetically 1000 people were having great fun using it to cyberbully 10 people. It’s impossible to say that it’s no big deal because 99% of users loved it, unless you know exactly how much the 1% hated it.

[samus]

It's not just people with power. Even if he had taken care to conciliate people with connections, it would have eventually blown up by someone going to police directly.

[1whizkid1]

This was exactly my point You can always find 10 people who will hate on things, that doesnt mean you should get to ruin things for 1000’s of others

[ImPostingOnHN]

You can always find people who will like something, that doesn't mean you should do it.

For example, there are people who watch some sick shit on the internet, that doesn't mean you should serve it up.

[samus]

If the thing directly impacts them then yes, it should get to ruin things for the rest. If you don't understand why that is desirable then somebody should make a website describing which NSFW websites you like to frequent to spook your future investors.

[ImPostingOnHN]

it's like a trolly problem where the main line is "status quo" but you can optionally pull a lever labelled "students who like anonymous internet rumoring get more of it and also some students are victimized"

[1whizkid1]

I honestly think the "targeted harrasment" thing is completely overblown. i mean that was just a very very very small part of the site. like okay, maybe 3 people are getting hurt (which btw, they could js report and id take the post down), but over four thousand kids were also enjoying using the site right? like people would come up to me everywhere and say how much fun they're having etc.

[hungryhobbit]

Surprise surprise: the arrogant selfish child doesn't have empathy for anyone else.

If four thousand kids were all laughing at a rumor that you had a small dick, and every girl you were interested in laughed you out the door for the rest of your college career, would you really be like "it's ok, 4k people are having fun"?

I guarantee OP would be the guy calling the site operator and threatening to jump him.

[a_n]

i mean i'd just prove that rumor wrong by uploading a photo

[scrame]

you say in your own essay that you're response was "bitch sick my sick". you come across as a narcissistic arrogant spoiled brat.

[1whizkid1]

I had taken that post down. That was a response to him threatening me to take the website down

[scrame]

right, after you got in trouble. you were an arrogant prick until you dug yourself into a hole of your narcissism.

you're writing to a broader audience than you think, and you've already marked yourself as a crybaby richboy d-bag.

maybe start a podcast.

[pizza234]

There are several legal issues, including:

- You created profiles for students without consent

- You enabled anonymous posts about identifiable individuals

- There was no effective moderation/control system

Core issue: once you're aware of harmful content, you’re expected to act. If you don't address it in a reasonable time, you can become legally liable.

[quietsegfault]

Here’s where I think you went wrong:

1. IT Act 2000 — Section 66C / 66D (Identity Fraud / Impersonation) You student data and sent emails appearing to come from or relate to official IIT systems. The email notification system especially is sketchy. sending emails to official addresses using student identity data without consent borders on unauthorized use of identity/credentials.

2. IT Act 2000 — Section 43 (Unauthorized Access / Data Theft) Scraping student data from IIT Delhi’s internal systems without authorization is almost certainly a violation here. Section 43 covers unauthorized access to computer systems and extraction of data.

3. Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices) Rules, 2011 You collected and published sensitive personal data (romantic relationships, social associations) without consent, no privacy policy, no opt-out. This is a clear violation of the SPDI Rules under the IT Act.

4. Indian Penal Code Section 499/500 — Defamation The platform explicitly hosted rumors, gossip, and accusations (dating history, “haters”). Anonymous posts that damage reputation = defamation. As the platform operator and publisher, you have exposure. Unlike Twitter or Reddit, you’re not a passive host. You designed the romantic/social tagging features.

5. IPC Section 354D — Stalking The “crushing on / crushed on by” fields combined with the email notification system is very problematic. Enabling someone to anonymously tag another person and then notify them about it could constitute facilitation of stalking.

Also, it was simply uncool.

[titzer]

The reaction was swift. Let's hope there are real consequences, because consequences are the only thing that change behavior.

They wrote at the bottom:

> I'm going to be THE WHIZ KID BILLIONAIRE OF THIS GENERATION. WITNESS HISTORY.

Hey, wonderful. But the rules apply to us all, your whiz-ness.

[amatecha]

You might have gotten positive acknowledgement of the technical work if you were like, 13. By your age (which I assume is greater than 16 or 17) you're expected to understand things like "not enabling anonymous attackers to harass the shit out of literally anyone at your entire school with impunity".

[dcrazy]

So you made JuicyCampus[0]/YikYak[1] and are surprised you’re being ostracized for it?

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JuicyCampus

[1]: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/07/yik-yak-re-em...

[1whizkid1]

My idea and the implementation was honestly much different from these. It was a pretty cool abd unique implementation i think, where you’re commenting on actual person profiles instead of random gossip… hence the virality

[sanswork]

So I've been online for over 30 years now and literally every community I've been a part of with over 1000 members eventually has someone build basically this exact same thing. It's about as original and unique as starting a t-shirt business or a discount card for students.

As for your claims that people like it because lots of people were using it, you are being ignorant. People in the community refresh on sites like this/flock to them because of fear. They are afraid of what people are saying about themselves and their friends.

I guarantee if you actually polled users you'd find the vast vast majority of them would wish the site didn't exist. Usage != Support.

[1whizkid1]

No you’re completely wrong on this. Almost all of the discussion was just fun stuff, “oh i like this guy” “this girl is cute” “im crushing on him” etc etc. there were a few bad comments, which btw i dont think comments on the internet should bother you that much, cos itll make your life harder only, but still any bad comments i was deleting when told

[azan_]

It's not like people do not make this kind of websites because it's challenging technically (it's trivial) or because they did not think of it. They don't because it's shitty idea.

[alsetmusic]

"Why would a school get mad that I built a website that had stolen nude photos of the female students that I found on revenge-porn sites? They should be proud of me for building something that all the male students love and the female students view daily to make sure they aren't on it. 100% of students use it!"

Sounds a little bit like that.

[anakaine]

If this is your viewpoint, that people should be proud of you for creating a platform for gossip and bullying, where it has real deleterious and negative effects on people's lives, then im going to say it - you are a legitimately selfish person who lacks empathy.

Seed funders are likely notice these personality traits and refuse to invest, because someone with those qualities is an investment risk for multiple reasons. For example, in this story you've infringed a brand name, scraped and used personal data without permissions - likely also breaking terms of use, created accounts portraying real people without their permission, established a system to defame (the relationship component), created unwanted spam (emailing university emails automatically) and failed to have in place appropriate moderation. Why would investors put their money against such a risky proposition?

[busymom0]

To me, OP seems like someone who's deliberately trying to become the villain because he's seen the social network movie too much and is fantasizing that he'll gain the same wealth and fame as Zuckerberg by being the villain. Except here, he started crying when the consequences of being the villain caught up to him.

OP needs to realize that we are no longer in 2005 when the Facebook was founded. Nor is he in the US. He's in India which has much different laws and culture. And case law and our understanding of the harms of cyber bullying and harassment has drastically evolved since 2005.

OP should also realize that this is at IIT in India. There's already a huge suicide problem amongst students in India due to competition. Adding cyber harassment to that isn't the best idea.

[basilikum]

I really hope you'll find something in life to live for that actually benefits people.

[vignesh_146]

you are still being disingenuous. We live in a society, the college as a whole is a society of various people. Your site was hurting some people's sentiments and that's enough reason to take it down. I can admit it was maybe cool, but try to do cool things which do good to people, not harm. and be a little more humble.

[stronglikedan]

> Your site was hurting some people's sentiments and that's enough reason to take it down.

Like hell it is. I got news for you - every website hurts someone's sentiments. That's no reason to gatekeep.

[vignesh_146]

I mean the only thing this site could do is hurt people?

[1whizkid1]

I agree so fucking much… anything can hurt someones sentiments