An Augean Stables

"The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow's terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb" – National Research Council, 1991

This three-decade old quote highlighting the power of digitisation and the Internet was more of a prophecy that has now turned out to be true. Lives of victims are being terrorised by perpetrators of crime, with a paramount sense of impunity. Without sharing physical, spatial proximity with victims, criminals are able to unleash great degree of damage to their lives. But to simply say that threats to individual humans have magnified multi-fold in the Internet age will be an understatement loaded with absolute lack of precision, for there are layers of truth hidden in this fact, making it as good as a lie!

Online violence is more pronounced if the victim happens to be a woman, and even more pronounced and unchecked if that woman happens to be a Muslim, a Dalit or any other marginalised class. Furthermore, it will be a grave folly to look at cybercrimes through the mere lens of individual crime. The Internet has provided those wielding power a space where women, as a tool or medium, can be harmed to suppress a particular community, class, profession or ideology. Thanks to the age-old association of a woman's identity with notions of chastity and modesty, they become soft targets and tools in most cases.

In this article, we shall take stock of the legislations regarding cybercrimes in India and understand their futility. We shall also try to trace the accountability of such crimes by analysing the role of various stakeholders.

Understanding cybercrimes

In absence of any legal definition, any crime committed against a computer resource or with the aid of a computer resource is considered to be a cybercrime. Needless to say, in a world which relies so predominantly on cyberspace, this definition is far too simplistic and vague, and misses out on details that could assist our understanding of crimes committed over the internet.

Our actions and interactions in the real world manifest in a similar yet different form in cyberspace — be it shopping, gaming, interpersonal communication or group communication.

Multiple crimes, too, have found their manifestation in cyberspace, with criminals having the extra freedom of sitting in their rooms and afflicting innocent targets without even making an eye or physical contact.

Just like in the real world, women, along with other marginalised classes, have a disproportionate share in the overall pool of victims. The Internet has been long conceptualised as an open space for freedom of speech and expression. Again, this simplistic conceptualisation of the Internet fails to incorporate the complexity of the web. Ardia noted in 2017:

What many consider the largest public space in human history is not public at all. Paradoxically, the Internet—a content-agnostic communication network available to anyone with access to a computer—contains no true 'public forum.'

The idea of the Internet needs to be redefined in a more protective sense — by fixing the accountabilities of stakeholders in an articulate manner.

Cybercrime as a power game

Gendered crimes against women in the physical world is a patriarchal method of subjugating women's identity. This tendency is no less pronounced when it comes to crime against women in cyberspace. It is pertinent to look at cybercrimes against women through an intersectional lens comprising the elements of race, religion, class, caste and disability.

For instance, just take the case of cyberbullying. Fegenbush & Olivier (2009) noted that "cyber bullying essentially involves a 'power game' where the bully feels more powerful and attacks the victims who may have low self-esteem mostly because he/she wants to show off his/her superiority." While cyber bullying is done with the intention of targeting an individual person, cyber trolling is a still larger game. In trolling, the motive is not to undermine an individual's self-esteem, but to eclipse an idea that the individual represents by virtue of belonging to a certain profession, caste, class or religion.

While some women — who hold some power and influence — decide to stand upfront to the troll challenge, many women self-censor themselves by holding back from participating in public debates.

Normalisation of violence

There was a time in the latter half of the 20th century when 'information' came to be equated with power. Those who had control over information, held sway over a lot many things. Then came a time when the lines of distinction between the message (read information) and medium (read information tools) got obliterated — urging Marshall McLuhan to herald the new age of "technological determinism."

The far-sightedness of this new paradigm is visible today, as those having access to the internet and advanced internet devices can conveniently tinker with the social lives of others who may not be as technically smart or equipped. This uncontrolled power of information technology is redefining social hierarchies in its own peculiar way.

Demonstration of this power was evident when some students with technical background decided to replicate a similar crime of the past by virtually auctioning vocal Muslim women who carry the grit and gumption of speaking truth to power. In this case, the targeted persons were themselves powerful women including journalists, social activists, advocates among others.

It was a new-age manifestation of deep-rooted patriarchy and feudalism. Had the targeted women not belonged to an outspoken class, they could have been easily silenced. Humanity is still to wrap its head fully around information technology because there are women out there — even decently educated and aware — who undergo cyberstalking, cyberbullying etc. without a word of formal complaint. It took humanity centuries to denormalize (only partially) misogyny, casteism etc. in the physical world. Let's not err again by letting cybercrime normalize in a new space whose gravity many fail to understand.

One study by Amnesty International found Indian Muslim women politicians faced 94.1 per cent more ethnic or religious slurs than women politicians of other religions, and women from marginalized castes received 59 per cent more caste-based slurs than women from more general castes.

Apart from caste, gender and religion-related subjugation, women may also face harassment at online workplaces. Danielle Keats Citron (2009) cited an earlier finding, stating "Cyber gender harassment undermines women's ability to achieve their professional goals."

Emerging threats

First used in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel 'Snow Crash', the term "metaverse" is now already a reality.

Technological simulation has the capability of replicating real-life experiences in a metaverse. In fact, the horrific examples of women being raped in metaverse is already out. At a time when our justice system is still finding it hard to comprehensively incorporate the concepts of cyber pornography and cyberstalking, we are set to face newer threats, without safeguards.

Legal framework

The legal framework for combating cybercrimes in India is rather too bleak and bears the semblance of an era gone by. The first-ever conviction in India for cyber pornography was made in Suhas Katti vs State of Tamil Nadu in 2004. The culprit was punished under section 469 and 509 of the IPC, and Section 67 of IT ACT 2000 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form). None of these sections specifically deal with cybercrime.

It took almost a decade for our legal system to add specific Sections 354A to 354D in the Indian Penal Code. Under Section 354 A, any male who engages in any of the following acts — demanding or pleading for sexual favours; showing pornography against a woman's will; or making sexual remarks — commits sexual harassment.

Section 354 C of the IPC deals with voyeurism — an act of taking a photograph of a woman engaging in a private act and/or publishing it without the lady's permission. For a crime to be classified as voyeurism, the photograph has to be taken in a manner that the woman would "usually expect not to be seen, either by the offender or by anyone else acting at the perpetrator's direction. Similarly, Section 354 D deals with cyber stalking.

In addition to these IPC sections, the Information Technology Act, 2000 also contains provisions for combating cybercrime. Section 66C of the IT Act deals with identity theft. Section 66E of the IT Act deals with privacy breach.

For decades, these tit-bit laws have been proving ineffective in dealing with cybercrimes against women. The reasons include — lack of comprehensiveness of these statutes and the absent will power of the government. An all-encompassing legal framework is required that would deal with the following aspects of cybercrime — governance of intermediaries in a very specific context, synchronisation of provisions with technological upgradation, socio-cultural and religious factors as triggers, and centrality of victim rather than the culprit.

Role of intermediaries

In cyberspace, there are "intermediaries" that serve as crucial links to joining the dots on the Internet — providing a platform for users and connecting them with each other. Under the IT Act of 2000, intermediaries are defined as "entities that store or transmit data on behalf of other persons." Ardia (2010) classified intermediaries into three categories — communication conduits, content hosts and search/application providers.

Content hosts also include social media companies. It must be their responsibility to introduce proper checks and balances to prevent, in the first place, the publication of materials that may result in cybercrime against women. Secondly, if such a content gets uploaded on the platform, they must immediately take it down. Some social media intermediaries have openly cited their inability to prevent abusive content from appearing and sustaining on their platform.

This stated "inability" appears to be no more than a mockery when compared to the precision with which such intermediaries make big bucks by trading in consumer data. Not long ago, Facebook attracted massive criticism from privacy advocates for using emoticons to know the moods of the users for their own marketing research. At the same time, there have been reports of emoticons emerging as yet another tool for magnifying harassment of women. Loopholes in content moderation by intermediaries are driven more by laxity than by inability.

In a report submitted to the United Nations, Amnesty International highlighted the need for moderators to be trained in identifying gender-related and identity-related abuse on platforms. The Conversation reported that one moderator working for Facebook India said she's expected to achieve an accuracy report of 85 per cent minimum to keep her job. In practise, this means she can't spend more than 4.5 seconds on content being reviewed. Such structural issues can also contribute to the problem.

While algorithms are driving their fortunes at the cost of harming the most vulnerable women and children, the government in India wishes to tackle this mammoth, sophisticated problem with outdated and tit-bit legislations. Our net is too small to tame the elephant!

The way forward

The to-do list in terms of tackling cybercrimes against women is rather too long. In the first place, the definition of cybercrime needs to be elaborated and the existing laws need to be attuned to new-age complexities.

The nature of the laws can be twofold — victim-centric and intermediary-centric. Dual victimization of women in cases of obscene crimes has to be prevented at all costs. Allowing compensatory justice to female cybercrime victims can go a long way in comforting the victim and afflicting the culprit after the commission of crime. Intermediaries need to be roped in through clearly articulated laws.

Above all these basics, the government must also focus on putting a tab on the operation of VPNs, as recommended by the Parliamentary standing committee.

A committee report also recommended streamlining of cross-border investigations within the country and signing of pacts with countries from where cybercrime has been predominantly committed in India. Above everything, the approach will have to be proactive.

Views expressed are personal