Humans of Bombay founder Karishma Mehta, who is being slammed on social media after she filed a case of copyright infringement against People of India, has been receiving more criticism for her comments in an older video.
In the video posted on X by a user, Mehta said that the idea to start the hugely popular social media page that shares heart-warming stories of the people of Mumbai, came to her “completely randomly”.
“Completely randomly and out of the blue, I stumbled upon the idea of Humans of Bombay and I started it. And it clicked. That period was a high of its own to start something new,” she said in the video. The video has gone viral and social media users are not holding back when it comes to criticising Mehta’s “lie”.
One of the users called out the “delicious coincidence”. “And the concept and the name turned out to be an exact replica of Human of New York…damn!,” he wrote on X.
Mehta found herself in a sticky situation after Brandon Stanton, the founder of storytelling platform Humans of New York, reacted against Mehta’s case. Hitting out at Humans of Bombay, Brandon said that he has kept quiet about the appropriation of his original work by Mehta’s platform. “But you can’t be suing people for what I’ve forgiven you for,” he stated on his Instagram stories.
The discussion did not end there. Humans of Bombay released a detailed statement in response to Brandon’s “cryptic assault”. “Perhaps before jumping the gun on this matter, you ought to have equipped yourself with the information about the case also about what HOB is trying to do,” it said.