Writeups

Lock(ed)down

There is a significant increase in the sexual harassment and domestic violence cases during the lock-down in India and other parts of the world. Creation of fake profiles, cyber bullying, online stalking are bigger challenges at this time. Insensitive comments on posts are also intimidating. The cyber-crime department is receiving a lot of complaints during the lock-down period. The number of complaints is just minimum number of actual crimes as many women and men don’t file complaints because they worry about the social stigma associated with it.

The whole country is locked down, people are working from home and spending a lot of time on the internet. So, even the cyber criminals are becoming innovative and craftier in their techniques. Everyone is spending a lot of time on the internet. Some people are getting emails that your phone and laptop has been hacked, and if you don’t deposit money in my account I will send your morphed images, and share it with all your contacts. Basically people are receiving threats and are being blackmailed.

As you might be aware of morphing images, there is a whole racket going on where women get emails of their devices being hacked and images being morphed. These criminals demand money. Also there are cases of money laundering with emails and links.

All we can do about this situation is to be aware every time. Changing our passwords time to time and not clicking unknown links are the basic steps. Keeping ourselves safe is very important when we are using internet and social media. Also if you’re facing any issues then file a complaint in cyber-crime for the issues related to the cyber space crimes.

Now talking about the rise in domestic violence, being at home saves us from the virus but there are women and men who are being sexually and physically abused by the people in their family. The cases are increased as the frustration and anger is more as everyone has to stay home. This problem is faced all over the world with 60% rise.

The UN agency for sexual and reproductive health (UNFPA) has estimated that there would be 31 million more cases of domestic violence worldwide if lock-down continue for another six months.

What victims of domestic violence must remember is, to not blame themselves for what is happening to them. Violence is unacceptable and the perpetrator is 100 per cent  responsible. Victims must not make excuses for the actions of the perpetrators, as there are none. Acceptance of such actions may lead to a vicious cycle of abuse. The option of reporting domestic abuse to the police is always available. However, if the victim does not intend on that course of action, they can create a safety plan for themselves, with a safe word to alert people they live with when faced with a threatening situation.

-Prachiti Chitale

Need of Social Media Censor Board

In the 21st century, almost everyone has access to the internet. As most of the people use social media and have an internet connection, we are all netizens. Like the real world, social media also has policies that censor the explicit content which is harmful or has a wrong impact on the people. Social media plays a major role in public life. Yet there is a tide of misinformation and bad information, driven mainly through online social platforms, which is threatening to undermine public trust and cause further anxiety for people.
As people use social media this much, everyone’s information is available easily on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. And we receive emails like winning lottery etc. are scams. There is a threat to our privacy when we provide our details to such untrusted sources. Some rackets hack people’s devices and snoop into their personal lives.
Also, there are incidents like sharing child pornography and obscene material over social media via messaging apps. And in some cases, there is cyberbullying of students and celebrities via social media for defaming them or for revenge purposes.
As we have seen, there are incorrect pieces of information that are spread daily on social media. Currently, we are going through a worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 where misinformation can be harmful. During emergencies of this magnitude, the need for trusted, factual, evidence-based reporting is more crucial than ever.
The companies have their policies of Censoring Harmful Content. But there is still the necessity of a Social Media Censor Board as there are many political and government-related information spreading through social media where there is a need of trusted a source.
But features like WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption make it difficult for the government to track the source of information. And removing the encryption may cause a threat to privacy.
Some of the people’s rights in the constitution may also be compromised like the ‘Freedom of Speech’. But it also makes social media a safe place for everyone.
Conclusion:
Censorship is at best a game of whack-a-mole because you can’t perfect speech. You can’t have good speech without bad speech and attempts to eradicate the latter lead to no speech at all, at least none that you can hear in public. In practice censorship just drives banned speech underground, where it gains prominence and is subject to far less scrutiny. And doing so makes us and everyone around us feel safe while using social media.

-Prachiti Chitale