When Shraddha Singh, a 23-year-old content creator, headed to Jantar Mantar to join the July 20 students’ protest over examination paper leaks, she had no idea her life was going to change forever.But it did. All because a reel she shot with Rapid Action Force personnel in the background garnered nearly 2 million views within minutes and triggered a wave of vicious trolling, with many accusing her of insulting the security forces. Though Shraddha deleted the video and later issued an apology, the backlash hasn’t stopped.“It has, in fact, turned into something far more sinister. My inbox and social media timelines are flooded with rape and death threats. So much so that I find it difficult to travel alone without covering my face,” Shraddha told The Tribune. She claimed to have counted over 34,000 threatening messages on Meta and X. Terrified by the episode, she said she would never join a protest again.“People have been using extremely filthy language. They even targeted my mother, who lives in Bhopal. They found out where I live and have been sending rape threats and messages saying they would kill me if they saw me. I am so scared that I wear a mask whenever I step out. I just want to avoid being recognised,” she said.Shraddha recalled that she had shot the reel as a meme, with no intention of offending anyone. “By July 26 or 27, I realised the outrage against me had taken on a life of its own. That was when I understood this was no longer normal trolling. I had become a target,” she said.Most of the abuse, she claimed, came from anonymous accounts hiding behind fake identities. Even logging off social media did little to shield her from the backlash. “I am a yoga instructor and have over a lakh online followers. But ever since the video went viral, I have lost over 20,000 online clients and almost all my offline clients.”She now feared losing even her rented accommodation. “My landlords have called me for a meeting tomorrow. Going by how people judged me after the video went viral, I don’t know what to expect,” she said, visibly anxious. For days after the episode, Shraddha did not step out of home. “Even a short trip outside now feels like a carefully planned exercise to avoid being recognised,” she said, questioning why only women participants were being singled out. Shraddha said her fear had become so real that she no longer ventured out alone.“I always ask one of my friends to accompany me because I feel safer that way,” she said, adding that while nobody initially contacted her, people from the government and the CJP later reached out.