The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday called for a Supreme Court-ordered probe into the online harassment of women journalists and urged the government to take urgent steps to dismantle the “misogynistic and abusive digital ecosystem”, track down the masterminds and punish those involved.

“Given the allegations that there may be the involvement of influential people linked to the ruling party with the app Tek Fog, the Guild demands that the Supreme Court of India take cognisance of the matter and order a probe into it,” the Guild said in a statement, condemning the online harassment of women journalists.

“What is further disturbing is that most of these attacks are targeted at journalists who have been outspokenly critical of the current government and the ruling party, in an effort to silence them under the intimidation of such attacks. This is a travesty of all democratic norms, and in violation of law,” the Guild noted.

Referring to online news portal The Wire’s investigative report on the extensive and well-funded network built around an app called Tek Fog that steals unused WhatsApp accounts to send out toxic messages to targeted journalists, the Guild said the purpose was to instil fear in them and to prevent them from expressing themselves freely and go about their job.

“Though law-enforcement agencies have arrested those supposedly behind such apps, there is need for further investigation in order to ensure that all those behind such despicable acts, even beyond those arrested, are brought to justice,” the Guild said.