No, it’s not okay.
‘Online harassment’ is also known as cyber harassment, cyber abuse, and online abuse. Described below are online settings or platforms where Online Harassment can happen.
Online settings include email, social media platforms (such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, etc.) messaging apps (such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp), blogging platforms (such as Medium, Tumblr, and WordPress), and comments sections (such as those found on digital news platforms, personal blogs, YouTube pages, Reddit, and Amazon book reviews).
Online harassment is online behavior that goes out of the way to cause trouble for someone by intimidating, threatening, or humiliating them, and can have serious social, psychological, or even physical consequences.
We live in the world of the Internet and, unsurprisingly, people have leveraged the technology to harm others. The ease with which information can be shared and spread online, with the same ease, malicious or baseless comments, and fake information can also be shared. It is also impossible for any individual or an organization to have complete access to all the information or content shared by users online, making it difficult to gauge how long such statements have been online and how far they have spread before the victim comes to know about it.
Eight out of 10 people in India have experienced some form of online harassment, with 41% of women to have faced sexual harassment on the web, according to a new survey commissioned by cybersecurity solutions firm, Norton by Symantec. In Chapter XI of the Information Technology Act, 2000 penalties for all types of Online Harassment are stated.
Types of Online Harassment:-
Cyberbullying
Online Defamation
Trolling
Cyberstalking
Doxxing
Blackmailing
Cyberbullying:
Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying.
Cyberbullying is when someone bullies or harasses others on the internet and in other digital spaces, particularly on social media sites Or we can say cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using any electronic media/medium.
EFFECTS OF CYBERBULLYING:
Cyberbullying has become increasingly common, especially among teenagers, as the digital sphere has expanded and technology has advanced.
Victims of cyberbullying may experience an increase in suicidal behavior, lower self-esteem, a variety of negative emotional responses including depression, frustration, anger management disorders, nervous breakdowns, panic attacks, etc.
WHAT IS CONSIDERED ASA PART OF CYBERBULLYING?
Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.
MEDIUMS USED IN CYBERBULLYING:
With the prevalence of social media and digital forums, comments, photos, posts, and content shared by individuals can often be viewed by strangers as well as acquaintances. The content an individual shares online, both their content as well as any negative, mean, or hurtful content, creates a kind of permanent public record of their views, activities, and behavior.
1. The most common places where cyberbullying occurs are:
2. Social Media, such as Tik Tok Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook
3. Text messaging.
4. Direct messaging, and online chatting over the internet.
5. Online forums, chat rooms, and message boards.
6. E-mails
7. Online gaming communities
TACTICS USED IN CYBERBULLYING:
1. It is important to understand how children are cyberbullied so it can be easily recognized and action can be taken. Some of the most common cyberbullying tactics include:
2. Posting comments or rumors about someone online that are mean, hurtful, or embarrassing.
3. Doxxing
4. Threatening to hurt someone or telling them to kill themselves.
5. Posting a mean or hurtful picture or video.
6. Pretending to be someone else online to solicit or post personal or false information about someone else.
7. Posting mean or hateful names, comments, or content about any race,
religion, ethnicity, or other personal characteristics online.
8. Creating a mean or hurtful webpage about someone.
STATISTICS:
According to research conducted by Symantec, nearly 8 out of 10 individuals are subject to the different types of cyberbullying in India. Out of these around 63% faced online abuses and insults, and 59% were subject to false rumors and gossips for degrading their image.
In fact, 50% of women residing in prime Indian cities are a victim of online abuse, according to a survey by Feminism.
UNDERSTANDING CHILD’S SYMPTOMS BY PARENTS:
If anyone observers these changes:
• Considerable increase or decrease in child’s usage of a mobile, laptop or tablet
• Display of emotional responses such as sadness, anger or happiness to the activities on their device
• The tendency to avoid discussion on their online activities
• Hiding of the device screen when others are close by
• Indifference to social activities and gatherings, and outdoor activities
• Sudden deactivation of their social media accounts or opening of new ones
• Becoming depressed and withdrawn
• They might be a victim of cyberbullying,
Ane we must be aware of it.
NOTE: Recovering from the trauma of cyberbullying can be time-taking and hard. In such cases, the victim needs support and guidance. It could come from parents, peers, family members, or teachers. If required, seek the help of a professional counselor.
Online Defamation:
Cyber defamation is considered to be the act of defaming, insulting, offending, or otherwise causing harm through false statements about an individual in cyberspace. There are two main types of defamation: libel, or written defamation, and slander, or verbal defamation.
The internet is full of interesting websites where someone could intentionally or accidentally leave a possibly defamatory comment or post.
There are many misconceptions about defamation. Remember these points about defamation:
Is truth a defense to defamation claims?
Yes. Truth is an absolute defense to a defamation claim. But keep in mind that the truth may be difficult and expensive to prove.
Can my opinion be defamatory?
No, but merely labeling a statement as your ‘opinion’ does not make it so. Courts look at whether a reasonable reader or listener could understand the statement as asserting a statement of verifiable fact. (A verifiable fact is one capable of being proven true or false.) This is determined in light of the context of the statement. A few courts have said that statements made in the context of an Internet bulletin board or chat room are highly likely to be opinions or exaggeration, but they do look at the remark in context to see if it’s likely to be seen as a true, even if controversial, opinion (“I hate Ekta Kapoor’s new series”) rather than an assertion of fact dressed up as an opinion (“It’s my opinion that she shouldn’t have represented Indian Army in such way”).
What if a statement is only partially true?
Let’s take another example. Let’s say that you wrote on someone else’s Facebook page that Sanjay Sehgal was fired from his job because he made a serious mistake and, as a result, his company lost an important client. Again, if this is a false statement, it is almost certainly defamatory. But what if it is true that he made the mistake, but that the company did not lose the client? What if his company fired him to appease the client? You have certainly written something false (at least in part), but maybe overall it was not defamatory.
The bottom line on this type of situation: If you are blogging or writing on your Facebook page, or submitting comments on someone else’s blog or Facebook page, make sure that you have all of your facts straight before posting your statement to the internet. Once you have clicked “send,” you can’t take it back.
Trolling:
Trolling means making negatively provoking comments or offensive remarks to someone to get a negative reaction from the person. The word trolling originally means a special technique to catch the fish by attracting them. Similarly, the troll lures the victim into heated arguments by their unsolicited comments. It happens in the areas open for the public to share their views, like Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, etc.
There is one and the only reason why people Troll – they yearn for attention. They love it and feed off of it until they have you all riled up in their web. In a world where you can wear any identity, it is favorable to them. They wear their safe mask of anonymity and get on their way to cause disruption.
You have to identify if you’re participating in a healthy discussion or you are being trolled. A troll can be deeply attached to the topic of discussion or they are just trying to provoke you. Either way, ask yourself these questions:
1. Is this discussion going anywhere?
2. Do you both understand each other’s viewpoints?
3. Are you both mainly concerned with getting back at each other now?
The best way to deal with a troll is to ignore them. You can even block or report them if they are causing severe havoc.
Knowingly or unknowingly, the troll can be you. Identify the pattern. While it is necessary to raise your voice against injustice, you should know when to walk away from a discussion.
Cyberstalking:
Social media is the best platform to showcase your talent but it can also destroy someone’s life. Cyberstalking is one more way of online harassment. It includes stalking or harassing any individual or a group using the internet. Online stalking can be accompanied by offline stalking as well. There can be different types of cyberstalking. They can be gender biased or can even target any celebrity. Cases of cyberstalking are increasing in India day by day. A survey states that around 50% of women in major cities have faced online abuse. This becomes scarier because the virtual world mirrors the real world. The stalker can also be a known person or unknown. In most cases, the stalker can be your partner. The psychological reason for this could be to control the victim and encourage social isolation. Is cyberstalking a crime in India? Yes, cyberstalking is an offensive crime. In Maharashtra, around 1139 cases are filed against stalking and in Delhi, around 1130. Information Technology Act 2000 and The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act deals with all the cases. Cyberstalking can involve stalking a person over the internet via phone calls, SMS, or Emails. Social media apps provide access to personal information like pictures, addresses, or workplaces this information can easily be misused. The best thing to do regarding cyberstalking is to report the account in the first place and inform concerned authorities. In the virtual world, the most important thing is to have proper evidence. Do not delete any messages, emails, or anything that proves the crime. One important point to keep in mind is to never share personal information with anyone over social media. Some cases have shown greed for money as a reason for the crime.
Doxxing:
Doxxing has become a mainstream tool for culture wars. It is a cybercrime that involves discovering the real identity of any internet user. The attacker then reveals that person’s details so others can target them with malicious attacks. Their information posted online to harass that person. Doxing is a standard tactic of online harassment and has been used by people associated with controversies. When a person connects these digital traces and shares them with other people often strangers or even the wider public take away their target’s control over private data. There are many ways where your information may just leak out, they may not realize how many clues they give away while posting about their life, work, leisure activities, and other personal information. Mainly social media profiles that are open to the public are goldmines of their private data. So to avoid them there are many measures to be practiced such as stop posting every detail on social media accounts, change the password regularly, use VPNs, and don’t save passwords when not required.
Blackmailing:
The report says over a third of women are been threatened in social media. Some were tortured, some fell mentally weak and some have even ended up their lives. Blackmailing is been one of the easiest ways to disturb one’s life. Blackmailing is a threat not only emotionally but this action makes the victim weak with physical damages too. It is a sort of compromise on our action it can be pleasure, treasure, reveal a secret, or even revenge. Not only strangers can be a criminal but even ur own dearest one can be. One such shocking case was quoted on a social media platform that says “There’s one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I’m not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts. Hurry up and die bitch.” written by Antony Elonis to blackmail his extorted wife. Yes, this case was solved but there are still hundreds of cases that aren’t yet disclosed.
Sextortion is a kind of blackmailing where a victim (as per NCA both male/female) is be-friended by a criminal and forced to perform sexual acts in front of the webcam. Then they threat them for money. One can deal with it by documenting all pieces of evidence, securing all your online accounts, cut all contact with the criminal, by not paying any ransom, contact the social media platform where you’ve been harassed, and file a police complaint too.
Is Online Harassment a crime?
In 2018 trolling actors, celebrities, or any public figure was very common. There were endless trolls made on them on which several social activists raised their voices. Online harassment is now considered a crime. Section 354 D of The Indian Penal Code states that following a person or misusing their information which results in fear of violence or interferes with the mental peace of the person is an offensive crime and will be considered as stalking. Section 354 A of IPC punishes the offense of sexual harassment for 3 years of imprisonment. Cybercrimes do not have any jurisdiction as they are committed beyond boundaries. So one can report cases of online harassment to the cybercrime units of any city irrespective of where the crime took place. Most of the women hesitate to file a complaint at any police station, the fear of being harassed is very common. So they prefer to stay silent and bear with mental stress. But for women who don’t want to deal with this openly can complain against stalking at the National Commission for Women. The commission takes up the matter and investigates it with the concerned authorities. In the virtual world, the stalker can easily hide the evidence so taking out a printout is very important. Any act in which your personal information is shared with known or unknown without your consent is a serious crime and must be reported.
Preventive Measures:
*Change passwords of your social platforms from time to time and also activate two-step verification for your account security.
*Don’t respond or provoke them (that’s what they want!).
*Report the abuse to the social media platform.
*Block the person.
*Document all instances of trolling from repeat offenders in case you decide to take legal action.
*Maintain adequate identity theft protection on your devices.
*Report the imposter account to the social media moderator, editor, or site manager.
*To prevent phishing schemes, use a secured network, delete any suspicious emails and only send sensitive information with encrypted emails.
*Avoid clicking unknown links.
*Take action to make sure your data and personal information are private.
*Google yourself to see what information is published.
*Make all internet profiles private.
*Proactively delete your data from data broker sites.
*Use a VPN to protect your location.
*Purchase a VPN to shield your IP address
*Take legal action by filing a report with law enforcement
*If you believe this will be a future threat, inform your local authority to prepare them.
Conclusion:
India has the largest number of cases when it comes to online harassment. Eight out every ten Indians have faced it. Be it trolling, cybercrime, stalking, defaming, or other ways. Recent years have witnessed a change of laws, there are more strict rules and regulations for online harassment. Many girls have gone through mental stress and many have given up on their lives. Everyone has the right to be on social media platforms. There is a website http://www.cybercrime.gov.in where you can file a complaint while being anonymous. But the most important point is to never share any personal information with strangers. Your information can easily be misused. A large number of the growing population spends there time on social media and as a web user, we must be very careful. Always report this shameful act to the concerned authorities because no harassment is big or small. No one has the right to invade your privacy.