Shubnam, who identifies as transfeminine, said they were in the middle of moving house in Delhi’s scorching 40 degrees Celsius-plus summer when they found out that a video of them telling a social media content creator to “f*** off” had gone viral.

The clip of their fleeting interaction at a trans rights protest was recorded without Shubnam’s knowledge or consent, using Meta’s AI (artificial intelligence) Ray-Ban smart glasses. It was filmed by a relatively unknown content creator on Instagram, who goes by the username Parley (@parley.96) and specialises in ragebait pranks.

The concerns the incident raised have only sharpened since. On July 20, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Sandeep Lamba – filmed slapping a woman protester during the march to Parliament, and since removed from the Jantar Mantar protest site – was seen wearing smart glasses at the protest site, this time with the camera in the hands of the state rather than a content creator. But Shubnam’s ordeal remains one of the most prominent examples yet of a user weaponising the glasses to capture imagery without consent, a practice journalists and tech policy experts have flagged as a major privacy risk, illustrating how wearable tech can facilitate the abuse of vulnerable groups.

With a shorn head and dressed in a turquoise green saree, Shubnam cut a striking figure at the protest on March 29, 2026, at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar grounds against the Transgender (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026. Trans activists slammed the bill as regressive, but Indian lawmakers passed it hastily anyway.

When Parley posted an edited version of the video in late May, Instagram’s algorithm propelled the post, triggering a wave of transphobic hate and memes, including AI-generated images likening Shubnam to a Hindi animated cartoon named ‘Ganji Chudail’ or bald witch. 

Several right-wing pro-Hindutva X accounts downloaded the clip and shared it on the Elon Musk-owned platform in what seemed like a call for mass bullying. The clip had over five million views on Instagram alone before the platform quietly deleted it three weeks later, in late June.

“I was in the middle of shifting homes when this entire sh*t show went down,” said Shubnam, who works as a graphic designer and artist. “I was packing a giant carton when I got a text about that video on May 26, and then it just kept growing,” they said. Although the protest took place on March 29, Parley did not upload the edited clip until nearly two months later, in May – which is when it first came to Shubnam’s attention.

“House-hunting for trans people is quite a challenging task,” Shubnam said. “I was already quite mentally drained from the whole hunting and shifting, and this whole episode of virality just overloaded my brain at a time when it really needed some rest.”

Meta denied, then deleted 

Meta, the Mark Zuckerberg-founded company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been leading the smart glasses space with its introduction as early as 2021. The glasses are made in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban and Oakley.

Meta roped in cricketer Virat Kohli to promote its latest wearable tech. The glasses allow users to........

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