Four minutes – that’s what Madonna (and Justin Timberlake) said they needed to save the world and that’s how long it took for The Viral Fever’s world to explode. On Holi morning, filmmaker Apurv Asrani tweeted this:

The link was to a post on Medium by one Indian Fowler, who claimed she had worked at The Viral Fever (TVF) and been repeatedly harassed by the CEO and founder, Arunabh Kumar. It had been uploaded on Sunday and according to Medium, it just needed four minutes from the reader. Within hours, the post had gone viral and social media was bristling with outrage at Kumar. More women – some of them willing to disclose their identity – recounted their experiences of how Kumar had misbehaved with them. Women who had been on bad out-of-work meetings with Kumar also joined in the chorus.

Kumar’s long-time collaborators at TVF defended him staunchly, said TVF had not had any employee fitting Indian Fowler’s description and that her allegations of sexual harassment were bunkum. Amit Golani tweeted that this was a conspiracy against TVF by haters and competitors.

The company responded soon after with this statement.

It’s fascinating that TVF, as a company, decided that the best way to respond to sexual harassment was with a threat to uncover the culprit and deliver “severe justice”. There was no offer of an investigation, though this morning, TVF’s Nidhi Bisht has said there will be one. It’s worth keeping in mind that at least one person has been asked to leave the company because of sexual harassment complaints against them. One former employee, Aayushi Aggarwal, said in a comment to the Medium post that TVF is “no place for a woman”.  At present, TVF reportedly has about 80 women (out of approximately 200 employees) on its payroll.

At the heart of the shock and rage that was directed at TVF was the sense of disappointment that new media, which includes everything from properties like this website to entertainment platforms like TVF, had not proven to be different. Mainstream media, advertising and the film industry teem with rumours of sexual harassment. It’s difficult to verify them because the harassers are in positions of power and there’s always the fear of vendetta. Occasionally a case like the one against Tehelka’s Tarun Tejpal will emerge, offering a glimpse into how sexism has been normalised by old hierarchies.

To complain about sexual harassment instead of just ‘dealing with it’ informally, is considered a sign of weakness in India. The net result of complaining almost always involves the victim looking for another job and you try finding a job when you have the aura of She Who Complained.

And so it is that predators become more confident and a little more careful. Victims become meeker and more afraid of consequences. In short, nothing changes.

New media, supposedly peopled by the young and progressive, was meant to be different. However, the reaction that TVF has had to the allegations against Kumar have taught us otherwise. Not only did TVF summarily deny Indian Fowler’s claims, it turned a blind eye to the testimony of Reema Sengupta, founder of the production house Catnip. Sengupta wrote on her Facebook wall that while she’d been working with TVF on a project, Kumar had behaved inappropriately with her. “In the middle of the shoot, he touches my shoulder tattoo and tells me he finds it sexy,” Sengupta wrote. In an interview to Mumbai Mirror, Kumar responded with, “The kind of insinuations the FB post makes are untrue. I am a heterosexual, single man and when I find a woman sexy, I tell her she’s sexy. I compliment women. Is that wrong? Having said that, I am very particular about my behaviour – I will approach a woman, but never force myself.” It clearly didn’t strike Kumar that a working environment isn’t the ideal situation in which to point out a person’s sex appeal, irrespective of one’s sexual orientation.

Bottomline: TVF’s reaction to an allegation of sexual harassment is to dismiss it because it’s anonymously written. Kumar’s defence, when faced with an allegation by someone who isn’t hiding their identity is that he’s heterosexual and single. Is this what is supposed to inspire the confidence to report any complaints as Bisht has requested in her Facebook post today? Any TVF employee who finds this uncomfortable can, presumably, take director Amit Golani’s advice and watch Girliyapa to reassure themselves that it’s a safe and supportive working environment for women.

The good part about new media and the need to collect clicks is that this story is being reported on and discussed. Sexual harassment in the workplace is rarely discussed in media because it’s a sensitive topic with few people volunteering to provide credible information. There’s anxiety about claims being dropped or proven false. Take, for instance, how one Reddit user decided to claim they’d been molested by comedian Rohan Joshi, only to confess the allegation is false. Why did they make the claim? See for yourself.

Especially when the internet is rife with unverified accounts like this – and to be fair, even the Medium post that started this controversy – it’s the media that occupies an important role in terms of lending credibility and gravitas to an issue. In the race to produce content that will attract the viewer, online media is displaying an alarming lack of rigour and tendency to sensationalise. Yesterday, The Quint’s report on the allegations against Kumar included a woman’s description of what was evidently an out-of-work meeting. Aside from telling us that Kumar isn’t precisely a smooth operator, it is of no value whatsoever on a story about sexual harassment in the workplace. On informal and personal platforms, people may point to Kumar’s behaviour, label him an incorrigible flirt and say this suggests he would be equally ‘hands-on’ in professional spaces. However, for a journalist to do the same is speculation. And speculation that betrays a bias against Kumar.

Indian Express’s web desk went with a story that used Asrani’s tweet and Asrani was far from amused when the article’s headline claimed that he has said all accusations against Kumar are true.

Asrani’s point is that the issue of sexual harassment needs to addressed, which is a reasonable point. How it’s addressed is as important and, on this front, it is the media that needs to be careful that its reports do not do a disservice to all those who are speaking out.