Giving women death or rape threats on social media has become the latest fad in cyberbullying. The trolls are so out of control that, back in 2021, even Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma’s ten-month-old daughter was not spared. A man sent her a rape threat on Twitter after the Kohli-led Indian team did not perform well in the T20 Men’s Cricket World Cup. Even prominent female journalists like Barkha Dutt, Rana Ayyub and Nidhi Razdan have time and again received rape threats, especially if they reported against the ruling party. In fact, Razdan went on record on Twitter, asking Instagram to take action against such bullies.

While we don’t know what happened about Razdan’s FIR, let us understand what you should do if someone tries this on you.

  1. Block and report: Block the trolls and report them on the social media platform concerned. I know this sounds like nothing, but it is the first step, especially for your mental peace.

  2. Record all evidence: Screenshot all evidence of the threat(s) and save it in one place that is handy.

  3. Report it to the police: File a police complaint with the cyber police/regular police, whichever is available to you. Death and rape threats are serious; they are literally open calls to commit a crime. We must file a complaint against them.

Which laws protect you against death or rape threats?

Believe it or not, there is no law that criminalizes death and rape threats in India. We have to collect different provisions from multiple laws, much like other forms of cyberbullying.

  1. Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita: Under the BNS, the laws that offer protection are sections 75 (sexual harassment), 79 (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 351 (punishment for criminal intimidation).

  2. Information Technology Act: Under the IT Act, the laws that offer protection are sections 67 and 67A, which deal with digitally transmitting obscene material.

It is important to note that the above sections are indicative, i.e., we can fit death and rape threats under these. However, each police station may tweak this list and add or delete sections. Just make sure that the ones listed above are covered, even if other sections are added.

Social media platforms need to do more to protect their female users

In conclusion, I want to ask you something. Do you think internet companies like Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, should also be made responsible for making the internet a safe space for women? To think about it, if cyberbullying is an earthquake, social media platforms are its epicentre. However, these platforms have done little or nothing to prevent cyberbullying.

With the amount of money and resources that Meta has access to, and pumps into research and development on how to keep users on their platform for longer, it is hard to believe that they have not been able to devise a system that can detect nuanced forms of cyberbullying. The same Meta, however, has come up with an extremely efficient mechanism where it automatically detects the sound in any video you upload. And if there is a copyrighted song in the background, it will not let you upload your video.

How do you explain something like this? The answer is simple. Platforms like Meta and Google earn revenue from copyright owners (like music labels, production houses, etc.), but not from women who become victims on their platform. Isn’t it high time that our laws and policymakers ensure that these platforms put in equally stringent checks (like their copyright checks) to protect the safety and dignity of their users?

File that complaint!

In most cases of cyberbullying, victims hesitate to approach the police, either due to social stigma or because they feel that the police will not help. Most offenders also operate with the belief that they will never get caught. However, as evident in the cases above, the police do take action in many cases. In fact, the police have the power to trace the device of the offender through the IP address and seize it. Even a warning from the police sometimes serves as a deterrent.

Points to remember

  1. Cyberbullying can happen in various forms, like online stalking, sextortion, voyeurism, trolling, creating fake profiles, etc.

  2. For most cases of cyberbullying, there is no dedicated law (at least not yet). You need to fit a concoction of different sections to every case.

  3. Many forms of cyberbullying, like sextortion, death and rape threats, and voyeurism also attract criminal law provisions.

  4. For serious cases of cyberbullying (like sextortion), you must file a police complaint. For issues like trolls, you can consider other options.

  5. You can file a complaint with the cyber crime cell or a regular police station.

Case in point

In 2020, a man named Shubham Mishra posted a two-minute graphic rape threat against a female comedian, Agrima Joshua, because he was offended by one of her jokes(!) This man was traced to Vadodara and the local police lodged an FIR against him.

Sometimes, an FIR itself is enough because it teaches the troll a lesson, that he could go to jail for his online threats. It also sends a message to other bullies, that they stand to meet the same fate if they do something like that.

Excerpted with permission from Legally Yours: Every Woman’s Guide to Her Legal Rights, Manasi Chaudhari, HarperCollins India.