Why online safety is paramount now more than ever

A reflection keeping yourself and others safe online amidst the rise of AI and other situations across Substack

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. I’ve decided to do this piece in the spur of the moment in light of recent events which happened yesterday. If you’re not up to speed in terms of the Muslim sisters community, there has been a manipulative, deranged boy at large who has been taking advantage of numerous girls across the platform. You can read up about more of this below with mine and

SabrGirl

’s Notes on the topic at large. Before proceeding with this piece, I suggest you read these both in detail as they shed a light on what I’m going to talk about now.

With AI and whatnot on the rise at a horrifying speed nowadays, it turns out insecure little boys have warped the use of this in their favour and the notorious Junaid Ul Nisar Raina was simply just one of them. If he wasn’t writing soppy, hearfelt essays in the comment section of your posts, he was most likely doing so in your friend’s. With this, he has been approaching myself and countless other girls across the platform to portray himself as a meek, timid guy and for us to feel sorry for him overall. Until we caught onto his pattern…

It is absolutely disgusting how much he manipulated all of us in his favour to feel sorry for him and end up replying to his messages of begging. Guilt tripping and manipulating girls for your own gain and benefit whilst also saying you’re not speaking to ‘non-mehram women’ does not make sense and is contradictory as a whole within itself. I won’t go into anymore but in order to protect myself and other girls from a horrible situation like this from happening again, I’m going to be putting some basic tips for us to protect ourselves the best that we can with the resources that we do have at hand.

So let’s get into it:

Trust your gut and intuition

I’m not saying this lightly as trusting my gut and intuition has saved myself one too many times from many dangerous situations and people like this. I knew from the first interaction with Junaid that he wasn’t a genuine soul at all so what did I do? Cut the guy’s access to me off completely and it worked like a charm. Anything, and I mean anything, which makes you feel weird or funny inside probably is something dodgy so you should immediately remove yourself from the situation before getting severely hurt.

Unite together more as a community

As Muslim women, it is absolutely paramount that we stick together as a community in face of heinous men such as Junaid, instead of judging each other from the get go. I think it is absolutely wrong to judge a situation firsthand without informing yourself with the relevant information and resources (or what you can find out about whatever the person has told you). Read up about whatever may have happened to your mutual and friend and lend a shoulder to cry on for them if they seem distressed or hurt about whatever they are going through.

Keep confidential information private

I know Substack is the place where we all trauma dump and such but in terms of confidential information (phone numbers, house addresses etc) keep your mouth shut. People like Junaid may speak flowery and innocent language to lure information out about your personal life or your whereabouts and it is important you keep quiet about this. We do not know who could be behind the screen nowadays so it is absolutely paramount we keep ourselves safe before we end up in dangerous situations.

Again, think before you overshare too much

No one needs to know every specific detail about your life unless you trust them completely and that includes strangers on the Internet. It is important to keep your guard up when surrounded by people such as Junaid as although they may appear as if butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths, you can also mistake salt for sugar. If the situation or person you’re with seems off, again you’re most likely right about this.

Spot the fakes (or AI in this case)

With the haunting rise of AI at large, again it is important to check whether the person you’re talking with is actually genuine…or just hiding behind an AI pseudonym. Junaid is a key example of this as he was leaving essays and essays of comments on mine and other’s girls posts and now looking back on it, it’s comedy gold and who the hell has the time to write that many comments on each individual’s posts?! I definitely don’t.

Tell a loved or closed one (whether that be friends or family irl)

Last but certainly not least, tell someone you know in real life who you trust deeply and completely. I think of my best friend immediately as I know I can trust her with my deepest and darkest secrets and I’m sure you guys all have someone whom you love and trust to tell all of your worries and upsets to. Before you burst with sadness or anger, remember to tell this loved one so you don’t keep it all in.

So these are all my tips! I hope you guys found this useful and again I’m here if you ever need to talk about any worries you may have across Substack similar to this one. May Junaid’s downfall stay forever and he keeps his existence far, far away from this beautiful and safe community we’ve made for ourselves Ameen.