The Legal Remedies At Your Disposal When Facing Online Harassment

Within the last decade, our dependence on the internet has increased. Especially with the rise and spread of COVID, the internet and online media have risen as essential tools for society. Much of our daily interaction today is heavily dependent on the online platform. While this has undoubtedly eased our life quite a bit, it has also opened up a new forum for those with ill intentions.

Among the various ill-intentional behaviours that happen online, the primary would be online harassment. According to the data collected by Statista, cases of online harassment and cybercrimes have been steadily rising in the past 2 years of COVID.

According to the research by the organisation CyberBAAP (Cyber Bullying Awareness, Action, And Prevention), 53% of the online harassment complaints were from males while 47% were from females.

However, women face the most online harassment across various platforms in actual life. Many women choose to not report such incidence due to multiple factors such as shame, fear, victim-blaming, social ridicule, etc. According to a global survey from 2020, 58% of Indian women aged 15–25 years faced online harassment or abuse.

Here, we shall discuss the various types of online harassment women face and what one can do against it.

Online Harassment And Its Types

Online harassment may be explained as repeated, unwanted or hostile behaviour by an individual or a group through the use of online portals in an attempt to hurt, harass, humiliate, frighten or stalk someone.

Based on the severity of the harassment, the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the U.S.A. and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in the U.K., among other international agencies, have classified online harassment into 10 broad categories.

1. Cyber Bullying: Any act of sharing or posting negative, harmful, fake or humiliating content about other people, including any personal or private information, through any cyber platforms, including social media, messages, apps, online forums, etc., is considered cyberbullying.

2. Cyber Teasing: It includes any attitude, mindset, pattern of behaviour or any conduct that can be construed as insulting or humiliating by the target, including sharing or posting vulgar/humiliating/defamatory/fake/harmful messages or information through social media.

3. Cyber Stalking: Any act of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to follow, manipulate, control or threaten an individual or group are taken as cyber-stalking. It includes chronic surveillance, information gathering for control and manipulation and implicit or explicit threats of physical harm.

4. Cyber Defamation: Any act of publishing defamatory content using ICT means is recognised as cyber defamation, including posting and sharing defamatory comments or false information.

5. Identity Theft: Any act of using another person’s personal identity information, such as their name, identification number or bank information without their permission, to commit fraud is held under identity theft.

6. Catfishing: Any act where an individual creates a fake identity on social media or online platforms, with the motive of targeting victims for abuse, deception, fraud, harassment, etc., is known as catfishing.

7. Doxxing: It is the process of retrieving, hacking or publishing others’ personal or private information, such as names, addresses, contact numbers or banking information online. It may be targeted towards specific organisations or individuals.

8. Swatting: It is the act of making hoax calls to police and emergency services, reporting fake incidents and diverting them to another person’s address.

9. Trolling: It is the act of making unsolicited, controversial comments on any online platform with the intent to provoke a response from the readers to get into a fight with them for amusement or any other gain.

10. Revenge Pornography: It is the act of distributing sexually explicit images or videos of an individual to defame, humiliate or blackmail them.

Laws Against Online Harassment In India

There are multiple ways to address online harassment in India. However, most of the common masses remain unaware of them. Following is the list of acts that address this issue:

1. Indian Penal Code, 1980: Following the Nirbhaya rape case, multiple changes were made to the act to make it more inclusive. While it doesn’t address online harassment directly, it has provisions for sexual innuendos, stalking, voyeurism and outraging a woman’s modesty. It also criminalises defamation and criminal intimidation.

2. Section 298: It criminalises hate speech in regards to the religious sentiments of individuals.

3. Section 354A: It describes many forms of sexual harassment, such as forcing someone to see pornographic content, making unwelcome sexual advances, demanding or requesting sexual favours or sexually coloured remarks.

4. Section 354C: It criminalises voyeurism without consent. It also criminalises distributing such content without permission, even if the voyeuristic content has been captured with permission.

5. Section 354D: It criminalises all forms of stalking, including online forms, unless it was justified, reasonable and pursued under law.

6. Section 499: It criminalises defamation through words, signs or other representations.

7. Section 503, 506, and 507: It proscribes criminal intimidation, including grievous harm or death threats.

8. Section 509: It criminalises the act of insulting the modesty of a woman through any action, gesture, word, etc.

What Should One Do When Facing Harassment?

There are numerous ways of addressing harassment. If one faces any of these issues, they can file a complaint from anywhere within the country as cyber-crimes do not have specific jurisdictions. There are three institutions where complaints can be lodged:

• Cyber cells: These are cells explicitly established to deal with victims of cybercrimes and are under the purview of the crime investigation department. In the case of unavailability of a cyber cell in their area of residence, one might file an F.I.R. at a local police station.
• The National Commission for Women: It supports the victims of online harassment in dealing with the police. It has the power to set up an inquiry committee to conduct spot inquiries, collect evidence, interrogate witnesses and summon the accused to hasten the investigation.
• Reporting on social media platforms: Most platforms have an option for reporting any activities of criminal or objectionable nature. These platforms are obligated to take actions to stop the offensive content from spreading within 36 hours of reporting under the IT rule 2011.

One should make sure not to delete any photos, emails or any other information sent by the offender to collect and present as evidence. It is also beneficial to take screenshots and printouts of the same to have a physical copy of the incident, which would also help with the evidence.

Finally, we must realise that it is also our responsibility to spread awareness about online harassment and measures against it with others so that people feel empowered to take action if they ever face such a situation. To further such a goal, many organisations have come forward to promote awareness and dialogue about online harassment that people face, especially women.

For example, Sacchi Saheli, a Delhi-based NGO, has organised an online campaign, #haqseonline, to spread awareness about online safety for women and ways to combat online harassment.

As a part of the campaign, they have a series of talks and discussions where experts communicate with the youth, sharing their knowledge, experience and perspective on identifying and addressing online harassment, particularly online sexual abuse.

We can create safe spaces for women from all spheres of life through such initiatives. It is time we reclaim the freedom that women have lost to patriarchy and discrimination and make space for free and open dialogue.