PRESIDENCY UNIVERSITY

School Of Law

Year & Semester : 3rd year 5th semester

Name of the Course : Company Law – II
Name of the Program : BBA.LL.B (Hons.)

TITLE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

RIGHT OD WOMEN FOR PROTECTING HER MODESTY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Name: Simran Singh Name: Prof. Swati Sharma
ID No.: 2016 BBL 028 Faculty-instructor- Law
relating to Women and
Children
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. What exactly is online harassment?

3. What can constitute online harassment?

4. What are the costs of online harassment?

5. Statistics

6. What are the legal remedies available to the victims in India?

7. Lodging of complaints

8. Conclusion

9. Bibliography
Introduction

With the blessings of Information and Communication Technology, the digital age is benefiting billions
across the world. The entire world has become a global village. Internet has proved to be the greatest
invention to mankind. However, the transcendental jurisdiction of Internet has caused the major threat to
the society in the form of cybercrimes. Women and children are the main victims of this transgression.1

Besides having one of the largest numbers of Internet users in the world, India also has some of the
highest statistics of sexual harassment globally. Over a quarter of its population is estimated to be online
– that is, 1.32 billion people are using the Internet. The Internet is a parallel of our physical world, if not
its mirror. Increasingly, harassment that women face ‘offline’, on the streets, at home, or even at the
workplace, is now being directed online as well.2

Today it’s an era of cyber world and there is massive expansion in the growth of technology. As
Information Technology evolved it gave birth to the cyber space where internet provides unrestricted
access and opportunities to any people to have access to any information, data storage at anytime with the
help of high technology. This led to the inevitable misuse of technology in the cyber world and as a result
giving rise to various “cyber crimes” at the domestic as well as in the international level.3

India has not only bagged one of the top ranks for having the highest number of internet users, but we
also ace the statistics of global sexual harassment. The harassment faced by women online mirrors the
image of harassment faced by them in the physical world. A survey conducted by “Feminism”, a digital
platform in India underscored that 50% of women in major cities of India have faced online abuse. What
is more striking is that instances of cyberstalking against men are on a surge. Experts have opined that the
ratio is 50:50 vis-a-vis the instances of cyberstalking faced by men and women.4

What exactly is online harassment or online abuse?

How British Crime Survey defines stalking

1
Yeshwant Naik, Cyber obscenity and victimisation of women in India, ipleaders (Mar. 02, 2019, 7:21 PM),
https://blog.ipleaders.in/cyber-obscenity/.
2
Shreya Kalra, Online harassment is spreading in India, India Times (Mar. 2, 2019, 7:30 PM).
https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/here-are-6-laws-that-can-help-women-who-are-harassed-on-the-internet-271964.html.
3
Anubhav Pandey, Social media offence, ipleaders (Mar. 2, 2019, 7:37 PM), https://blog.ipleaders.in/social-media-offence/.
4
Chandrima Khare, Cyber stalking, ipleaders (Mar. 2, 2019, 7:41 PM), https://blog.ipleaders.in/cyber-stalking/.
  The British Crime Survey defines stalking as two or more incidents causing distress, fear, or
alarm, of obscene or threatening unwanted letters or phone calls, waiting or loitering around home
or workplace, or following or watching, or interfering with, or damaging personal property carried
out by any person.

 Cyberstalking is a criminal practice whereby a person uses the internet, cell phone, and/or any
other electronic communication device to stalk another person.

 The perpetrators are involved in the destruction of data or equipments, solicitation of minors for
sexual purposes, threats, or any other form of offensive behaviour committed repeatedly.

 The offenders make use of email, social media, chat rooms, instant messaging or any other online
media to harass the victim.

How Forbes defines online harassment

 Forbes defines online harassment or cyber harassment as repeated online expression amounting to
a “course of conduct” targeted at a particular person that causes the targeted individual substantial
emotional distress and/or the fear of bodily harm.

Online violence against women, that is, violence directed at women because of their gender, is a barrier to
their enjoyment of their rights to equality and freedom of expression. While men can also be victims of
online abuse, women are often excessively targeted, especially when they express political opinions.
Also, the abuse they face is itself gendered. It often takes aim at women’s sexuality, reducing them to
sexual objects and reinforcing gender stereotypes.5

Online abuse includes a diversity of tactics and malicious behaviors ranging from sharing embarrassing or
cruel content about a person to impersonation, doxing, stalking and electronic surveillance to the
nonconsensual use of photography and violent threats. The online harassment of women, sometimes
called Cyber sexism or cyber misogyny, is specifically gendered abuse targeted at women and girls
online. It incorporates sexism, racism, religious prejudice, homophobia and transphobia.6

5
Amnesty International India, Online violence against women in India, Amnesty International (Mar. 2, 2019, 8:01 PM),
https://amnesty.org.in/need-talk-online-violence-women-india-2/.
6
WMC Speech Project, Online abuse 101, Women’s Media Center (Mar. 2, 2019, 8:15 PM),
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/speech-project/online-abuse-101#faq.
The purpose of harassment differs with every incidence, but usually includes wanting to embarrass,
humiliate, scare, threaten, silence, extort or, in some instances, encourages mob attacks or malevolent
engagements.7

What can constitute online harassment?

The actions mentioned below can be said to be acts of online abuse or harassment:8

 Public actions or threats

 False accusations of defamatory nature

 Hacking or vandalizing the sites of the victim

 Sexual remarks

 Publish materials so as to defame a person

 Personally targeting the victims of crime

 Ridicule or humiliate a person in order to gang up against him

There are many other more acts which can be classified as acts of online harassment:9

Cross platform harassment –

When a harasser, or group of harassers, deliberately sabotages or invades multiple online spaces for the
purposes of harassing a target. Cross-platform harassment is very effective because users are currently
unable to report this scope and context of the harassment when they contact platforms, each of which will
only consider the harassment happening on their own sites.

Cyber-exploitation, Nonconsensual Photography or “Revenge Porn” –

The distribution of sexually graphic images without the consent of the subject of those images. The
abuser obtains images or videos in the course of a prior relationship, or hacks into the victim’s computer,
social media accounts or phone.

Deadnaming –

7
Ibid.
8 Ibid. 4.
9 Ibid. 6.
A form of direct harassment in which a target’s former name is revealed against their wishes for the
purposes of harm. This technique is most commonly used to out members of the LGTBQIA community
who may have changed their birth names for any variety of reasons, including to avoid professional
discrimination and physical danger.

Defamation –

Coordinated attempts at defamation take place when a person, or, sometimes, organized groups
deliberately flood social media and review sites with negative and defamatory information.

DOS –

DOS stands for “denial-of-service,” an attack that makes a website or network resource unavailable to its
users. A feminist blog “Femsplain” was taken offline by a DOS attack on the day of International
Women’s Day in the year 2015.

Doxing –

The unauthorized retrieving and publishing, often by hacking, of a person’s personal information,
including, but not limited to, full names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, spouse and children names,
financial details. “Dox” is a slang version of “documents” or .doc. Causing fear, stress and panic is the
objective of doxing, even when perpetrators think or say that their objective is “harmless.”

Electronically enabled financial abuse

The use of the internet and other forms of technology to exert financial pressure on a target, usually a
woman involved in intimate partner abuse. This might include, for example, denying access to online
accounts, manipulating credit information to create negative scores and identity theft.

False accusations of blasphemy

Women face online threats globally, but they run a unique risk in conservative religious countries, where,
in blasphemy is against the law and where honor killings are a serious threat. Accusing someone of
blasphemy can become, itself, an act of violence.

Flaming

A flood of vitriolic and hostile messages including threats, insults, slurs and profanity.

Gender-based Slurs and Harassment

Name-calling is common online. Gendered harassment, however, involves the use of words, insults,
profanity and, often, images to communicate hostility towards girls and women because they are women.
Typically, harassers resort to words such as “b***h,” “s**t,” “wh**e,” or “c**t” and include commentary
on women’s physical appearances.

Google Bombing

The deliberate optimization of malicious information and web sites online so that when people search for
a target they immediately see defamatory content. In 2012, for example, Bettina Wulff, the wife of
Germany’s then president, sued Google because the company’s autocomplete search function perpetuated
rumors that she was once a prostitute.

Grooming and Predation

Online grooming is when a person using social media to deliberate cultivates an emotional connection
with a child in order to sexually abuse or exploit that child.

Hate Speech

Hate speech has no uniform legal definition. Online, this means that every social media platform has it’s
own unique definition. As a baseline, however, hate speech is language or imagery that denigrates,
insults, threatens, or targets and individual or groups of people on the basis of their identity – gender, ,
based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other traits. Hate speech
usually has specific, discriminatory harms rooted in history and usually employs words, action and the
use of images meant to deliberately shame, annoy, scare, embarrass, humiliate, denigrate, or threaten
another person. Most legal definitions of harassment take into consideration the intent of the harasser.
This, however, fails to translate usefully in the case of cyber harassment, the use of the Internet, electronic
and mobile applications for these purposes. In the case of technology enabled harassment and abuse,
intent can be difficult to prove and diffuse. For example, most laws do not currently consider third party
communications to be harassing. So, whereas the law understands sending someone a threatening
message for the purposes of extortion, it does not understand the non-consensual sharing of sexual images
to someone other than the subject of the photograph illegal or hateful.

Identity Theft and Online Impersonation

As defined by the Department of Justice, identity theft includes, “crimes in which someone wrongfully
obtains and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically
for economic gain.” The law applies to any person or entity who impersonates another person on the
Internet with the “intent to obtain a benefit or injure or defraud another.” Many states distinguish this
from impersonation, in which a person creates an account, website or ad using a person’s name and
address with the intention of harming another person. In 2013, for example, a jury convicted 32-year-old
Michael Johnson of more than 80 counts related to his having impersonated his ex-wife online. He had
purchased online ads and connected with would-be johns, posing, as his wife. He posted rape fantasies
inviting men to kick down her door and have sexual intercourse with her. In addition to sharing prices for
that act with her, he also included sexual intercourse with her three daughters, and with the toddler boy
that the couple had together. The abuse continued when he contacted one of the daughters’ school,
posting a message to the school’s website in her name, reading, “I will have sex with the teachers in
return for passing grades.” As many as 50 men a day showed up at the woman’s home. She eventually
moved her family to another state. Other cases similarly involving impersonation, involving false
fantasies of violent gang rape, are commonly used as part of ongoing intimate violence. The difference
between these two tactics is that identity theft benefits the perpetrator, while impersonation results in a
distinct harm to another person.

IRL Attacks

In Real Life Attacks describe incidents where online abuse either moves into the “real” world or is
already part of an ongoing stalking or intimate partner violence interaction. IRL trolling can also mean
simply trying to instill fear by letting a target know that the abuser knows their address or place of
employment.

Mob Attacks/CyberMobs

Hostile mobs include hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, systematically harassing a target.

Rape Videos

Videos of rapes in progress that are subsequently used to shame or extort, or are sold as nonconsensual
porn. These images are sometimes used to populate online spaces created for sharing them, cyber-
cesspools whose sole purpose is to deprive people of dignity by humiliating, and harassing them. In India,
rape videos are part of what law enforcement has described as a thriving “revenge porn economy.” They
are used to blackmail, shame and extort. The US and UK have seen multiple publicized cases of teenage
girls, whose rapes were filmed and shared, commit suicide.

Retaliation Against Supporters of Victims

Online abusers will often threaten to or engage in harassing their target’s family members, friends,
employers or community of supporters.

Sexual Objectification

Harassers frequently objectify their targets, including through the use of manipulated photographs and
sexually explicit descriptions of their bodies. Girls and women’s photographs are often used without their
consent and manipulated so that they appear in pornographic scenes or used in memes.

Shock and Grief Trolling

Targeting vulnerable people by using the names and images of lost ones to create memes, websites, fake
Twitter accounts or Facebook pages. Feminist writer Lindy West has described how harassers set up
Twitter accounts using a stolen photograph of her recently deceased father. The name on the account was
a play on his name and a reference to his death. “Embarrassed father of an idiot,” the bio read. It cited his
location as, “Dirt hole in Seattle”.

Spying and Sexual Surveillance

Most people think of spying and surveillance in terms of governments spying on citizens, however,
women are frequently illegally (and legally) surveilled. This happens in their apartments; in changing
rooms; department stores; supermarket bathrooms; on public stairways and subway platforms; in sports
arenas and locker rooms; in police stations and in classrooms while they teach. The minimizing
expression, “Peeping Tom,” is particularly insufficient given the impact of the nature, scale and
amplification of the Internet on the power of stolen images and recordings to be used in harmful ways.

Stalking and Stalking by Proxy

Justice Department of the US records reveal that 70 percent of those stalked online are women and more
than 80 percent of cyber-stalking defendants are male.

Slut-Shaming

A form of gender-based bullying often targeting teenage girls. Slut-shaming, stalking, the use of
nonconsensual photography and sexual surveillance frequently overlap, amplifying impact on targets.

Swatting

Deliberately tricking authorities into responding to a false emergency situation at a specific address. The
term comes from “SWAT” (Special Weapons and Tactics), a branch of the US police that uses militarized
techniques, equipment and firearms to breach targeted sites. Harassers will report a serious threat or
emergency, eliciting a law enforcement response that might include the use of weapons and possibility of
being killed or hurt.

Threats

Rape and death threats frequently coincide with sexist, racist commentary. While online threats may not
pass current legal tests for what constitutes a “true threat,” they do generate anxiety and alter the course of
a person’s life.

Trafficking

While not traditionally thought of as a form of online harassment and abuse, trafficking involves multiple
types of electronically-enabled abuse. Social media is used by traffickers to sell people whose
photographs they share, without their consent, often including photographs of their abuse of women as an
example to others. Seventy-six percent of trafficked persons are girls and women and the Internet is now
a major sales platform.

Unsolicited Pornography

Sending unsolicited pornography, violent rape porn gifs or photographs in which a target’s photograph
has been sexualized. For example, in 2003, the website for UNIFEM, the United Nation’s Development
Fund for Women, was stolen online by a pornographer who populated the site with violent sexual
imagery. More recently, editors at Jezebel, an online magazine, reported that an individual or individuals
were posting gifs of violent pornography in the comments and discussion section of stories daily. Writers
at Jezebel, almost all women, were required to review comments sections daily. Women politicians,
writers, athletes, celebrities and more have their photographs electronically manipulated for the purposes
of creating non consensual pornography and of degrading them publicly.

What are the costs of online abuse?10

Online abuse exacts many costs that are routinely minimized. Online harassment can be a steep tax on
women’s freedom of speech, civic life, and democracy. It can and does inhibit their economic and
educational opportunities. For women, harassment frequently perpetuates harmful stereotypes, is
sexually objectifying and relies on the threat of violence to be effective. Among the most commonly
reported by targets of online harassment are:

Personal

10
Ibid. 6.
  Emotional and psychological distress and health problems related to anxiety, depression, anger,
post-traumatic stress and hyper vigilance

 Concerns about physical safety

 Concerns about the safety of immediate family

 Concerns about employers and family members finding out or being affected by harassment

 Incurring financial costs of trying to avoid or offset harassment and abuse

 Physical assault

 Privacy violations

The seamlessness of online and offline violence means that real world safety gaps are made even more
pronounced. Perpetrators of intimate partner violence, stalkers and anonymous harassers all rely on pre-
existing violence, and societal tolerance of that violence, to leverage new technologies. According to
research conducted by the National Network to End Domestic Violence in the US (NNEDV), 89 % of
domestic violence programs report that victims experience intimidation and threats by abusers via
technology, including through cell phones, texts, and email.” Intimate partners create impersonator
content online, sometimes with brutal results. While media narratives often focus on stranger abuse and
harassment, the fact is that the most sustained and destructive examples of abuse online, like offline, are
most likely to be perpetrated by people known to victims. While this is true worldwide, there are also
unique physical risks in countries where free speech norms and gender imbalances differ from those in
the US. For example, in countries with highly punitive laws against blasphemy and/or where women are
discouraged from engaging in public expression and political life, online abuse is enabled.

Professional

Harassment frequently involves harm to professional life and impairs people’s ability to pursue economic
opportunities. Targets of harassment frequently worry about damage to their reputations and professional
lives, their ability to find work and loss of employment. Women who are targeted might, for example,
might be bombarded with bad reviews for their place of business or their work products. Search engines
might be maliciously optimized to highlight unflattering, inaccurate information.

Harassment makes women’s participation in male dominated fields or quickly evolving new markets
difficult. Hostility towards girls and women in new and expanding markets is often particularly
pronounced. Misogyny and sexism expressed profusely, for example, in gaming or sports, inhibit
women’s ability to fully participate and be taken seriously when they do. Harassment reduces
opportunities to engage as equals, be seen as authoritative or compete with for employment and education
opportunities.

Statistics

A major consequence of online abuse is the silencing effect it has on women, sometimes forcing them to
shut themselves out of online spaces. A survey by Feminism in India, a digital platform, found that 28%
of women who experienced online abuse said they intentionally reduced their online presence. While 30
per cent said they were not aware of laws to protect them from online harassment. Amnesty International
conducted a study on online violence against women in 2017 which showed that more than 75% of
women surveyed across eight countries (Denmark, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK
and USA) who had experienced abuse or harassment made changes to the way they used social media
platforms. A third of women said they even stopped posting their opinion on certain issues altogether. 11

Women often find it difficult to report online abuse to the police for several reasons, ranging from not
knowing the law to not trusting the criminal justice system. Of the women surveyed by Feminism in India
who reported harassment to the authorities, only one in ten said they had received a helpful response. The
National Crime Records Bureau says that around 12,000 incidents of cyber-crimes were reported in 2016,
and nearly the same number that were reported the previous year were still pending investigation.12

Women were surveyed from major Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad
and Kolkata. 58% of respondents reported having faced online aggression of some kind in the form of
trolling, bullying, abuse or harassment.13

Online harassment is in the rise in India, with eight out of 10 surveyed reporting to have encountered
some form of online harassment, cyber bullying and cyber stalking, global cyber security firm Norton by
Symantec said on Wednesday. The highest threats of physical violence were reported by victims from
Mumbai (51%), Delhi (47%) and Hyderabad (46%), with Delhi victims (51%) experiencing the
highest incidence of cyberbullying. The most common forms of online harassment are abuse and insults
(63%) and malicious gossip and rumours (59%). Shockingly, 87% of the people with disabilities or
poor mental health and 77% of those with weight issues reported experiences of abuse or insults online.
The level of online harassment in India is extremely concerning. Latest research by Norton by Symantec

11
Ibid. 5.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid. 2.
shows that more serious forms of online harassment including threats of physical violence (45%), cyber
bullying (44%) and cyber stalking (45%) are very high.14

Legal remedies available to the victims od online abuse in India

In an attempt to secure the freedom of speech and expression of Indian internet users, the Supreme Court
of India struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act in 2015 which encompasses the
punishment for sending offensive messages through communication services. However, in spite of the
apex court’s move, there exist laws in India that provide legal redressal to females who become victims of
online harassment. While it must be noted that not all such laws explicitly mention the term “internet”,
they can be interpreted in cases where a female individual is subjected to harassment on social media
platforms or on e-mail. Amendments were made to Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code in 2013, which
criminalised the assault or criminal force to a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty.15

The Indian Penal Code, 1860 –

Section 228A – Disclosure of identity of the victim in certain offences, etc.

Section 294 – Obscene acts and songs.

Section 354A – Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment.

Section 354C – Voyeurism.

Section 354D – Stalking.

Section 499 – Defamation.

Section 503 – Criminal intimidation.

Section 507 – Criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication.

Section 509 – Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a women.

Information Technology Act, 2000 –

Section 66E – Punishment for violation of privacy.

Section 67 - Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.

14
IANS, Online harassment in India rises, Express Tech (Mar. 03, 2019, 8:55 PM),
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/online-harassment-on-the-rise-in-india-mumbai-leads-
4873955/.
15
Ibid. 4.
Section 67A – Punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc.,
in electronic form.

Section 72 – Penalty for breach of confidentiality and privacy.

The indecent representation of women (prohibition) act, 1986 –

Section 3 – Prohibition of advertisements containing indecent representation of women.

Section 4 – Prohibition of publication or sending by post of books, pamphlets, etc., containing indecent
representation of women.

Government has taken the following steps to prevent online harassment/abuse of women:16

(i) The Information Technology Act, 2000 has provisions to deal with cyber crime against women and
children. Sections 66E, 67, and 67A of the Act provides for the punishment and fine for voyeurism,
publishing or transmitting of obscene/sexually-explicit material in electronic form. Further, sections 354A
and 354D of Indian Penal Code provides punishment for cyber bullying and cyber stalking.

(ii) Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides for certain due diligence to be followed
by intermediaries failing which they would be liable. The Information Technology (Intermediaries
Guidelines) Rules, 2011 notified under section 79 of the Act, inter alia, Clearly states that the
intermediaries shall inform the users of computer resource not to host, upload, display, modify, publish,
transmit, update or share any information that is grossly defamatory, paedophilic, harmful, obscene,
pornographic, harms minor in any way, violates such other law for the time being in force; etc.

(iii) Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is implementing a comprehensive central sector scheme, namely
“Centre for Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)” to handle all issues related
to check all cyber-crime against women and children including child pornography.

(iv) MHA has issued an Advisory on 4.1.2012 on Preventing & combating Cyber Crime against Women
and Children, wherein it was advised to States/Union Territories to specifically combat the crimes in
forms of cyber stalking, cyber bullying, child pornography and exposure to sexually explicit material etc.

(v) As per the MHA advisory, States have setup cyber crime cells to investigate cyber crimes and initiated

16
Law articles, Online harassment of women, Legal Services India (Mar. 03, 2019, 9:42 PM),
http://www.legalservicesindia.com/law/article/1134/16/Online-Harassment-of-Women.
action to strengthen the investigation resources in cyber crime cells.

(vi) Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued an Advisory under Information
Technology Act, 2000 for Online Matrimonial Websites service providers for the advantage/benefit of
registered users who have created the profile or whose profile is being uploaded for matrimonial alliance
on such sites.

(vii) Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has launched a portal www.cybercrime.gov.in for public to report
complaints of child pornography and sexually abusive explicit content.

“Police” is a State subject. Data related to establishment of cyber-crime cell catering to women in every
State is not maintained centrally.

Lodging of complaints17

The Information Technology Act provides that notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973, any police officer, not below the rank of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, or
any other officer of the Central Government or a State Government authorised by the Central Government
in this behalf may enter any public place and search and arrest without warrant any person found therein
who is reasonably suspected or having committed or of committing or of being about to commit any
offence under this Act. (Section 80)

Cybercrimes do not have a jurisdiction as these crimes committed without any barrier of boundaries. So,
you can report a cyber crime to the cybercrime units of any cityirrespective of the place where it was
committed.

 Cyber Cells: Cyber Cells have been established to provide redressal to the victims of cybercrime.
These cells function as a part of the criminal investigation department and specifically deal with
internet related criminal activity. If you do not a cyber cell at your place of residence, then you
can file an F.I.R in a local police station. You can also approach the commissioner or the judicial
magistrate of your city, if by any reason you are unable to file an F.I.R. Any police station is
bound to register an F.I.R., irrespective of its jurisdiction.

 Online Grievance Redressal: Police is the most notorious law enforcement agency in India when it
comes to dealing with women victims. Even when women have easy access to a police station,

17
Ibid. 4.
 they hesitate in reporting the incident to them, under the fear of being harassed and being made to
suffer additional ordeal. As a result, such crimes committed against women remain swept under
the rug and women continue to bear the brunt of harassment. So, women who do not want to come
out in the open can file a complaint against stalking at the National Commission for Women. The
Commission takes up the matter with the police and expedites the investigation. In cases of
serious offences, the commission can set up an inquiry committee to probe into the matter and
conduct spot inquiry, collect evidence, and examine witnesses, summon accused and police
records, etc to further the investigation.

 Report to the websites: Most of the social media websites where users make their accounts
provide a reporting mechanism. These websites are obliged under the IT (Intermediary
Guidelines) Rules, 2011 to act within 36 hours to disable information related to offending content.
The intermediary shall have to preserve such information and associated records for at least ninety
days for investigation purposes. The affected person can bring to the knowledge of the
intermediary, any offending content which is hosted, stored, or published on his computer system,
in writing or through email signed with electronic signature.

 Report to CERT: The Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 has designated the Indian
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) as the national nodal agency for tackling the
issues occurring in tow with computer security threats. They issue guidelines on the procedure,
prevention, reporting, and response to cyber incidents, among other functions.

What can be reported to CERT?

Both the users and System Administrators can approach CERT-IN to report about computer security
incidents and vulnerabilities. CERT-IN is at your disposal to provide technical assistance if the users
experience any the following violations:

 Email related issues viz. mail bombing, spamming etc.

 Processing and storing data by unauthorised use of a system

 Making changes into the software characteristics, system hardware or firmware without obtaining
the consent of the owner or without the knowledge or instruction of the owner

 Attempt to obtain unauthorised access to a system or data contained therein. Attempt includes
both successful and failed attempt

 Disruption or denial of service

How to report incidents to CERT-IN

You can report an incident to CERT by sending them an electronic mail, calling them, or filling up a form
available on their website, or by fax.

 Through Website: You can also report the incident on the website of CERT-IN by filling up an
incident-reporting form. Try to fill all the details as it will help CERT to understand the gravity
and nature of the incident and

and assist in recovery as desired by you.

 Through Electronic Mail: The CERT-IN email address for reporting incidents is incident@cert-
in.org.in‖. For all other inquiries and correspondence, write to ―info @cert-in.org.in‖.

 Through Telephone and Fax: Contact CERT-In on +91-11-24368572. Incident report can be faxed
to CERT-In at +91-11-24368546.

 Postal Address: Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), Ministry of Electronics
and Information Technology, Government of India, Electronics Niketan, 6, CGO Complex, Lodhi
Road, New Delhi 110003, India.

DOs and DON’Ts

 As cyber crimes are committed in a virtual world, it becomes difficult to collect evidence against
the offender. So, do not immediately delete the photos, mails, or any other information sent by the
stalker as this can help the investigators to trace the trail of his online activities and track him.

 Cyberstalkers can easily hide evidence of their online activity, so preserving his evidence via
printouts or screenshots can come very handy.

 Report the incident to the website in question.

 File a First Information Report to enable commencement of the investigation of the cyber crime.

The International Journal of Science, Technology, and Management (issued on 4th April 2017) gave
some useful links to report objectionable content to Social Media intermediaries like Facebook, Yahoo
etc.18

Facebook
Yahoo India

18
Ibid.
https://www.facebook.com/policies/?ref=pf ii.
https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy Ms.
Ankhi Das, Facebook India, Public Policy
Director Building No. 14, Raheja Mindspace,
HiTech City, Main Road, Vittal Rao Nagar,
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India E-mail
id:records@fb.com,ankhi@fb.com andjwu@fb.co
m
Mr Robin Fernandes, Sr.Executive Compliance
Building 12, 6th Floor, Solitaire Corporate Park,
Guru Hargovindji Marg, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400
093 Tel: + 91 22 3308 9600 ,+ 912233089652
Mobile: +91 8452049536 Fax: +91 22 3308 9700 E-
mail id: robinfe@yahoo-inc.com

YouTube and Google India Pvt. Apple India Pvt Ltd.

Ltd.https://www.youtube.com/t/contact_us 19th floor, Concorde Tower C, UB City, No. 24,
https://support.google.com/youtube/topic/280324 Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore 0560001 India E-
0 ?hl=en&rd=1 Ms. Gitanjli Duggal, Legal mail
Director, DLF Cyber City, Tower 8C. 9th floor, id:khanafer@apple.com,bangalore_admin@apple.co
Gurgaon – 122002. E-mail id:support- m
in@google.com; gitanjli@google.com
Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt. Ltd.
Ms. Madhu Khatri Associate General Counsel,
Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. 10th Floor,
Tower B & C,DLF Building No.5 (Epitome), Twitterhttps://support.twitter.com/articles/80586 E-
Cyber City, DLF Phase III, Gurgaon, 122002 Fax: mail id: grievance-officer-
91-124-4158888 Dial toll-free: 1800 102 1100 or in@twitter.com ;support@twitter.com
1800 111 100 E-mail
id: Meenu.Chandra@microsoft.com

Conclusion19

In conclusion, it can be stated that proper implementation of laws along with public awareness and
education of women concerning their rights and legal remedies can play a crucial role in eradicating
cybercrimes from our society. Such crimes cannot be curbed solely by enacting laws. Also, only looking
from the angle of protection of the social mores would also not suffice. The digital technology has grown
faster than the laws governing the technology. Hence the existing laws fall short to tackle the situation.

19
Ibid.
The menace of cybercrime is not just restricted to India, but to the whole of world. Hence, there is a need
for coordinated and integrated effort on part of the world community.

Bibliography

 Websites
 www.ipleaders.com
 www.legalservicesindia,com
 www.indianexpress.com
 https://amnesty.org.in
 www.womenmediacenter.com
 www.indiatimes.com
 Statutes
 The Indian Penal Code, 1860.
 The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.
 The Information Technology Act, 2000.