For years, singer Chinmayi Sripaada says she has been subjecte d to online abuse because of her outspoken views. Now, she claims the harassment has escalated beyond personal attacks, with trolls allegedly targeting her family and even wishing death upon her three-year-old son.

In a seven-minute video posted on X, the singer detailed the disturbing messages her family has received and spoke about the emotional toll they have taken. 
She also alleged that the abuse eventually pushed her husband, filmmaker Rahul Ravindran, to quit X.

Chinmayi claims trolls targeted her young son

In the video, Chinmayi alleged that one social media user publicly prayed for her son's death and encouraged others to do the same.

Speaking about the incident, she said, "Rahul's tolerance, however, hit a breaking point the moment he saw this particular tweet, which said he is going to pray for the death of my son. And he was calling more people to his bhajana mandali to wish for the death of my son. This was only because they were not able to control their emotions or their anger."

According to the singer, the online attacks escalated after Rahul shared his views on gender-related issues.

She explained, "One cannot take a few stray cases of murder that women have been doing on men as a gender oppression or a gender related case. And yes, all hell broke loose, and the continuous abuse and assault on our children started. So he decided to delete the app. I'm still here."

Rahul Ravindran reportedly quit X after receiving threats

Chinmayi said Rahul chose to leave X after the abuse directed at their children became unbearable.

The filmmaker had earlier revealed that he deleted the app from his phone after receiving disturbing messages and death threats aimed at his children during the controversy surrounding his film, The Girlfriend.

Rahul had said that one hateful post affected him so deeply that he no longer wanted to remain on the platform, even though he regularly used it to follow sports.

The online backlash gathered pace after some users linked ‘The Girlfriend’ to the Pune murder case involving Ketan Agarwal. Rahul later clarified that the film has no connection to the incident.

Singer shares screenshots of abusive posts

On Wednesday, Chinmayi also shared screenshots on X of messages she claimed had been sent to her family.

She wrote, "Some Telugu social media users have been wishing death on my kids because they are 'Anti Feminist' and hate women (with a voice) in general. My husband left Twitter a few days ago after he got a tweet from a male(?) or a female(?) who said 'Let's all pray together that Rahul's son must die.'"

The singer also pointed out that she and Rahul are parents to three-year-old twins.

"We have twins, three years old. A boy and a girl. Because I keep calling this out and they get support from MRAs and incels, propaganda continues for hate on my children for which I WILL respond in the same tone. People like this, people who support people like this need to be deleted here. Someone who harbours this amount of violence against children is no less than a sociopath and I don't wish them healing. I wish they delete," she added.

Chinmayi speaks out against online hate

Apart from describing the abuse directed at her family, Chinmayi also used the video to speak about rape culture, misogyny, sexual harassment and the rise of online hate. She alleged that abusive behaviour has become increasingly common in certain corners of social media and said the latest incident involving her children crossed every limit.

Before ending the video, Chinmayi had a strong message for those she alleged had targeted her children, Sharvas and Driptah.

"If you ever abuse my children, I'm going to wish nothing but horror, a very long life, and a horrific life at that," she said before signing off.