An Indian anti-corruption website that allowed people to anonymously report alleged demands for bribes has announced an indefinite shutdown following a dramatic surge in traffic and public submissions. Bribes.fyi was created by Aryan Nishad, a B.Tech student, as a crowdsourced platform to document alleged bribery experiences involving government departments.
The platform quickly attracted widespread attention after going viral on social media. According to updates from the team, Bribes.fyi received more than five million requests and around 200,000 new users within 48 hours, placing significant pressure on its infrastructure. The website had also received hundreds of reports detailing alleged bribe demands across different cities and government departments.
Users could anonymously submit details such as the department involved, location, alleged amount demanded and the nature of the government service for which the bribe was reportedly sought. The platform was intended to highlight patterns in alleged corruption rather than serve as an official complaint mechanism.
The founders initially paused new submissions and sought professional assistance, including from lawyers and chartered accountants, to strengthen the platform’s legal and financial structure. However, the website later announced that it was taking an indefinite break and had no plans to reopen submissions.
The team said the shutdown was a voluntary precautionary measure to prevent misuse and was not in response to any complaint. It also said the recorded data would eventually be permanently deleted. The developers acknowledged that they had not built the infrastructure necessary to safely manage the platform at such a large scale.
The sudden closure has sparked considerable discussion online about the challenges of running crowdsourced platforms that publish allegations of corruption while protecting user privacy, preventing misuse and maintaining legal safeguards.
