20-Year-Old Delhi Student Launches Anonymous Bribe Reporting Platform 'Bribes.fyi'

NEW DELHI: A 20-year-old developer from Delhi has launched an open-source digital platform named 'Bribes.fyi,' enabling citizens to anonymously report bribery requests, log departmental locations, and submit formal grievances to anti-corruption authorities across India.

The platform recorded over 25 lakh website requests within its first 10 hours of operation, reflecting significant public interest in crowdsourced anti-corruption monitoring tools.

Key Features and Data Insights

The platform tracks citizen-submitted reports across various state registries to build a public database of administrative transparency metrics:

• Anonymous Reporting Mechanism: Citizens can log incidents of alleged bribery, specifying the involved government department, location details, amount demanded, and whether the bribe was paid or refused.
• State Registry Ledger: The platform categorizes reports by total entries, average bribe amounts, and refusal percentages, offering comparative metrics across states.
• Anti-Corruption Submissions: In addition to public crowdsourcing, the system assists users in drafting and forwarding official complaints to designated state anti-corruption bureaus (ACBs) and vigilance commissions.

Legal Framework and Administrative Relevance

While crowdsourced reporting platforms operate outside government agency frameworks, they highlight statutory mechanisms under Indian law regarding anti-corruption enforcement:

• Statutory Framework: Under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, both the demanding and taking of illegal gratification by public servants constitute punishable offenses.
• Protections for Reporting: Legal provisions allow citizens to lodge formal complaints with vigilance authorities, state police ACBs, or the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

"Crowdsourced public databases serve as an innovative civic tool to map administrative corruption patterns, though formal legal action continues to require verified evidence submitted through statutory enforcement agencies," noted legal commentators in New Delhi.

Based on the image provided, here are the details extracted from the State Registry Ledger:

The surge in website traffic underscores growing public engagement with civic-tech solutions aimed at increasing administrative transparency.