Anti-bribery portal Bribes.fyi shuts after 2 lakh users in 48 hours

Bribes.fyi, a crowd-funded portal for anonymous reports of bribe demands, went offline just days after launch, having amassed over 2 lakh users and 5 million requests. The site, built by 20-year-old Delhi BTech student Aryan Nishad, displayed a neon-red map of India with allegations from 253 cities, targeting police, RTOs, and revenue and passport offices. Of the reports, 37% were marked 'refused', meaning users claimed they did not pay and still got their work done. The site stressed submissions were unverified.

The shutdown was voluntary and precautionary, citing traffic, spam, and data security. The team said they had not built infrastructure to safely handle the attention, adding, 'Shutting it down was our decision. It was always meant to send a signal, not point fingers. I think the signal was sent.'

Legal experts flagged that users admitting to paying bribes on the site could face criminal liability under Section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Technology lawyer Mishi Choudhary noted the law has a policy problem, and platforms must build anonymity and security from the start. Internet Freedom Foundation's Apar Gupta warned the site's active moderation of reports might exceed safe harbour protections under Section 79 of the IT Act. For a relaunch, he recommended no accounts, no IP logs, and stripped metadata.