Anti-Cyber Bullying Laws in India
In the recent case of BulliBai app, pictures of Muslim women were posted for fake auction. This case has brought the issue of online bullying of women in the headlines.
The Indian Penal Code (IPC), neither defines bullying nor punishes it as an offence. However, various provisions of IPC and Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) can be used to deal with cyber bullying.
Cyber or online bullying can be done in several ways:
- Frequent hacking of personal accounts
- Fleming, which is the use of vulgar or insensitive language to attack someone;
- Sharing or threatening/blackmailing someone’s private message or picture
- Chasing someone and sending targeted messages etc.
Legal provisions against such cyber crimes:
- Section 354A (definition of sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), 354C (staring) and 354D (stalking) of IPC.
- Section 66E of the IT Act provides for punishment in case of breach of privacy.
- The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021
Its provision includes due diligence and grievance redressal mechanism by the mediators. For this they are obliged to inform their users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any illegal information.
Source – The Hindu
