Tackling Online Abuse | 21 May 2025

Source: TH 

Why in News? 

Following the Pahalgam terror attack, a peace appeal by a victim resulted in her severe trolling. Similarly, India’s Foreign Secretary faced abusive remarks after announcing India-Pakistan ceasefire. 

• It revealed India’s growing crisis of cyber harassment and weak regulation highlighting the need for legal reform, platform accountability, and victim protection. 

What is Online Abuse? 

• About: Online abuse (cyber abuse, digital abuse, or internet harassment) refers to any form of harmful, threatening, or demeaning behavior that occurs through digital platforms.  
  • It can be directed at individuals, groups, or entire communities and can take many forms, from verbal attacks and harassment to the non-consensual sharing of private information or images. 
• Types:  
  • Cyberbullying: It is the use of digital platforms to harass, threaten, or humiliate someone repeatedly, causing emotional harm. 
  • Cyberstalking: It is persistent, unwanted online monitoring and harassment that causes fear, involving repeated messages, tracking activity, or using spyware and fake accounts. 
  • Trolling: Trolling is deliberately posting offensive or provocative messages online to upset people or disrupt conversations. 
  • Doxxing: Doxxing, short for “dropping dox” (documents), is the unauthorized online sharing of private information, like addresses or phone numbers, often to harass or threaten victims. 
  • Revenge Porn: It is sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent, violating privacy and often used for blackmail or humiliation. 
  • Catfishing: It is creating a fake online identity to deceive others, often for emotional, financial, or malicious purposes. 
• Status of Cyberbullying in India: India has the highest cyberbullying rate globally, with over 85% of children reported it.  
  • About 46% reported bullying strangers (vs. 17% globally) and 48% bullied someone they know (vs. 21%).  
  • Top forms include spreading false rumours (39%), exclusion from chats/groups (35%), and name-calling (34%). 
• Legal Provisions to Tackle Online Abuse:  
  • Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023: 
  • Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000: 
    • Section 66C: Identity theft 
    • Section 66D: Impersonation fraud 
    • Section 67: Publishing or transmitting obscene material electronically. 
  • Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP), 2023: DPDP provides for penalties for failing to prevent data breaches leading to harassment 
  • IT (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021: Social media platforms must disclose the first originator of content for investigations into offences like rape, death threats, sexually explicit material, and content threatening state harmony or international relations. 
• Judicial Stand: 
  • Shaviya Sharma vs Squint Neon & Ors Case, 2024: The Delhi High Court ordered removal of tweets exposing a woman’s personal details, recognizing doxxing’s serious privacy and safety risks despite lacking specific legal status. 
  • Shreya Singhal v. Union of India Case, 2015: The Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the IT Act, which criminalized “offensive” online speech, as unconstitutional—protecting free speech while emphasizing that reasonable restrictions must be narrowly defined. 
  • KS Puttaswamy v. Union of India Case, 2017: The Supreme Court declared privacy a fundamental right (article 21), laying the foundation to protect personal data and prevent unauthorized online disclosure or doxxing. 

What are the Challenges in Tackling Online Abuse in India? 

• No Dedicated Law: India currently lacks a specific law that directly addresses online hate speech and trolling comprehensively.  
  • Existing laws don’t cover ongoing online abuse unless it’s obscene, threatening, or fraudulent. 
  • Stalking laws are gender-specific (limited to men targeting women) and target individual intent, overlooking mass online harassment. 
• Content Moderation Challenges: Social media companies are taking significantly fewer content screening and proactive measures to address hate speech in India compared to the US and EU.  
  • Platforms like Telegram are facing legal action for permitting criminal activity, while profit motives have weakened moderation, allowing hate speech to spread. 
• Ambiguity over “Publicly Available Data”: The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 exempts “publicly available” personal data but lacks a clear definition, creating ambiguity.  
  • This gap may enable cybercrimes like doxxing, as fragmented data from various platforms can be easily combined for harassment or intimidation. 
• Enforcement Gaps: There is lax implementation of the IT Rules in India, leading to weak enforcement of digital safety and accountability standards.  
  • Victims, especially of gendered abuse, face disbelief and victim-blaming, discouraging legal recourse. 

What can be Remedial Steps to Tackle Online Abuse in India? 

• Legal & Policy Reforms: A dedicated cyber harassment law should be enacted to clearly define and criminalize doxxing, deepfake abuse, and coordinated trolling. 
  • Amend the IT Act and BNS to clearly define obscene, threatening, and hate speech for clarity and to prevent misuse. 
• Strengthening Enforcement: To effectively combat cybercrime, it is essential to establish specialized cyber cells and train police in areas like IP tracking and identifying anonymous accounts.  
  • A leading example is Kerala’s Cyberdome, which brings together police, ethical hackers, academia, and tech firms to advance cybercrime detection, digital forensics, and AI-based surveillance. 
  • Implement robust whistleblower protections to safeguard victims reporting online abuse from retaliation and counter-harassment. 
• Tech & Platform-Level Solutions: Leverage AI-powered detection and machine learning to flag hate speech, deepfakes, and abusive trends, enabling real-time moderation of violent and sexual content. 
  • Implement user verification systems to penalize fake profiles and bot-driven harassment. 
• Public Awareness: Implement digital literacy programs in schools and colleges to teach responsible social media use and to debunk fake news, hate narratives, and conspiracy theories. 
  • Launch anti-trolling campaigns promoting positive behavior and countering communal and sexist abuse through influencers and media. 
• Corporate Responsibility: Platforms should adopt ethical monetization policies by stopping algorithmic amplification of hate and demonetizing abusive content creators. 
  • Social media firms should enforce strict monitoring of online abuse, similar to the measures implemented in the US and Europe. 

Conclusion 

Stopping online abuse requires strong laws, better enforcement, tech innovation, and societal change. While free speech must be protected, accountability for organized harassment, hate speech, and privacy violations is non-negotiable. A balanced approach—protecting free speech while safeguarding victims—is essential to combat cyberbullying, doxxing, and hate speech in the digital age.