IAS Gyan

Daily News Analysis

Cyber Bully of Women

12th January, 2022 Society

Figure 1: no copyright infringement intended

 

Context:

  • Recently, an open source app called BulliBai, hosted on the GitHub web platform, has become the headline for "women's auctions" from certain communities.
  • Similarly, another Sulli Deals application has profiles of about 80 females, recently called them "Deals of the Day".
  • Police in Mumbai and Delhi have recorded this incident.

 

Bullying

  • According to the National Center Against Bullying, "bullying is power in relationships through repeated oral, physical, and / or social behavior aimed at causing physical, social, and / or psychological harm."
  • Bullying can be done directly or online via a digital platform or device. Bullying can be repetitive or repeated over time.

Cyberbullying

  • Cyberbullying is bullying that uses digital technology.
  • It can occur on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms, and mobile phones.
  • This is a repetitive behavior designed to scare, offend, or embarrass the subject.

 

Legislations to deal with Bullying:

  • IPC Section 153 A: "Behaviors that are detrimental to promoting hostility and maintaining harmony between different groups based on religion, race, place of birth, place of birth, language, etc." will be punished and sentenced to three years in prison.
  • IPC Section 295A: Allows the punishment of intentional and malicious acts aimed at damaging the religious beliefs of a region or a particular class of people.
  • Section 354D of the IPC: Provides that men who monitor the use of the Internet, email, or other forms of malicious communication by women are guilty of stalking. Penalties can be up to 5 years in prison.
  • IPC Section 500: Punished for defamation. Anyone who damages the honor of another person will be sentenced to a simple imprisonment of up to two years, a fine, or both.
  • IPC Section 509: Depends on insulting words, gestures, or actions aimed at insulting a woman's humility.
  • Section 67 of IT Law: Penalties for posting or sending obscene material in electronic form. The first conviction can result in up to 3 years in prison, and subsequent convictions can lead to up to 5 years in prison.
  • Section 66E of IT Law: Penalize acts that invade privacy. H. The act of intentionally or intentionally capturing, publishing, or transmitting an image of a person.
  • IPC sections 354A, 354B, 354C, and 354D: sexual harassment, the use of criminal violence, voyeurism, or stalking against women is a crime.

 

Way Forward:

  • Raise cybersecurity awareness so that girls and women can take the necessary precautions.
  • Schools, universities, universities and communities must play an active role in raising awareness.
  • Social media intermediaries need to be involved and advise users not to host, view, upload, modify, publish, send, store, update, or share illegal information.
  • International cooperation needs to continue to tackle cybercrime from abroad.
  • To assist the police, government need to promote better infrastructure, special cybercells, regular training, and collaboration with cyber experts.
  • Forensic research institute skills need to be strengthened so that evidence of cyberbullying can be collected in a timely manner.
  • Prompt and swift prosecution of cybercrime also helps to instill public confidence.