As technology outpaces law on online harms, new solutions are needed

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Beyond the harm to individual victims, online harms also undermine the common good by poisoning the overall tone of public discourse and deter civic participation by bullying people into silence. As a society where nearly 92 per cent of the population uses the Internet, our country is highly vulnerable in this regard.

Consider a scenario where a young woman finds out that intimate images of her have been circulated in a members-only online forum without her consent. She is distressed, but her options are limited because the existing laws have limitations. To start with, this is not exactly an instance of defamation, an area of law that aims primarily to protect reputation, not privacy. The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) and the part of the Protection from Harassment Act (Poha) concerning falsehoods would not apply either, since these are not false statements of fact. Would the woman’s case qualify as harassment under Poha? It would be hard for the victim to prove to the court that the post in the members-only forum was intended to harass her, or that she was “likely” to be harassed upon seeing it.

Even if the civil suit is successful, the harm would already be done. Monetary compensation or injunctions against the perpetrator would be cold comfort at the end of a long legal process. That is because images like these can potentially live on indefinitely, being hosted and circulated on multiple websites, with lasting consequences for the victim.

It is thus painfully clear that we are facing a “cultural lag” where technological advancements have outpaced our legal and moral norms.

No doubt, we need laws to arrest the damage caused by online harms. These can act as deterrents and also signal the values that the community upholds.

For qns on social media and legislation.....