With social media now an inseparable part of our life, the instances of cybercrime are also on the rise. But how aware are people about these and the guidelines in place to avoid getting in the mess?
Pradnya Gaonkar Rane
It may look fancy to proclaim to your friends and well wishers ‘What’s on your mind’ or share your on-going vacation plans on Facebook, Twitter and similar social platforms, but what is more critical here is the fact that you are being tracked. Vacation burglaries are common news items these days, thanks to the status updates.
Indeed, in recent years, social media has become a hotbed for crime. Another major issue today with the increasing use of social media is the circulation of fake news. The recent Kathua rape case also brought to fore another issue with individuals taking to social media to post opinionated comments which often ends up clouding the real facts of the case.
The alarming part however is that despite the rising number of cyber crimes, the layman is not even aware of them happening or the role of the police in taking action against the perpetrators. According to National Crime Records Bureau, in 2016, 930 cyber crimes registered in pornography while 159 for violation of privacy. In these crime, women were the main victims. In these crimes, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Maharashtra topped the list. From January - June 2017, 27500 cyber cases were reported to Computer Emergency Response team. This means every 10mins there is a cyber crime taking place in the country. Whereas in 2016, 50,000 cyber crime cases were reported to the computer Emergency response team implying that every 12 mins there is a cyber crime taking place.
Recently infact there were arrests against a Facebook post on the health of the Goa chief minister. Yet, it is difficult to predict if this action has had any major impact on the minds of the general public. “I don’t really think that people have taken these cases seriously because 90 percent of Indians take these posts on face value. Whether it’s good or bad, people will circulate the message if they know the person. It would be easier to curb the harm that can be caused by verifying the facts and the source of the information. A simple Google search could give you ample information on the authenticity of the information being circulated,” suggests Joelson Fernandes, trainer at Asian School of Cyber Laws. For instance, a video of foreign tourists belonging to a Hindu fanatic cult getting into an altercation with the Goa police at Mapusa bus stand recently was being circulated in whatsapp group. There was immediate bombardment of queries from all the members of the group. The war drums were finally silenced by a screen shot of a Google search that mentioned that the incident was a 10 year old story.
Joelson makes a point that the major social issue that is prevalent in India is that people often times react instinctively versus intellectually. Apart from verifying the information, Joelson says that it is every individual’s duty to put a stop to the spread of these detrimental messages by replying to the sender and discrediting the post and if need be make the police aware of such messages or posts.
The question arises however on how to get the source of such messages to avoid posting and the recipients to avoid forwarding the posts. Harold D’Costa, CEO, Intelligent Quotient Security System admits that there has been a laxity among people after the scrapping of the Information Technology Act 66A by the Supreme Court. Under this act, crimes on social media were cognisable offenses where police were allowed to arrest the culprit without any arrest warrant followed by a criminal FIR registered against the guilty. With the scrapping of the IT Act 66a, the offense is now civil and this has brought in laxity in the minds of people. The fear of being prosecuted for the crime is less, unless it is a defamatory case against woman. In some cases, police can take suo moto cognizance of the affair. In case of adult ponography, a complaint must be filed with the authority. If the messages are subject to child pornography then that calls for an immediate action by the police without waiting for an FIR to be registered.
With WhatsApp becoming one of the leading chat apps, the offensive content circulated on this medium is equally bigger in proportion. And thus certain guidelines should be followed. “WhatsApp being a non-encrypted medium, the origin of the message cannot be traced. To this effect, the admins of the WhatsApp groups, which are considered as an extended family, should manage the group responsibly as per the guidelines set by the authorities. Police should also come up with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) where awareness needs to be spread among people about the dos and don’ts while using social media. ,” informs Harold D’Costa, President of the Cyber Security Corporation. Being the technical expert in the Cyber Crime investigation, Joelson feels that backtracking the source of the content can be done but the major concern here is handling the platform responsibly. “There is no authority per say to monitor the content circulated on social media. We do have law enforcement bodies in the country who are doing their job. But when we talk about monitoring the content, it would bring in a third party monitoring every message, every mail that is sent from our devices. If we do not want that happen then the only way out is to act responsibly,” adds Joelson.
