Cyber or online bullying is a kind of abuse and stalking through electronic communication in which a person is threatened and intimidated. Online harassment can take several forms such as sending abusive emails, threatening, blackmailing, spamming. The majority of cybercrime victims are women, suggesting that this phenomenon is uniquely gendered. It affects them profoundly increasing their chances of further exploitation that may lead them to commit suicide. Technological advances in the cyber world are fast spreading in Pakistan. The use of social media has become necessary nowadays; Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Viber and Instagram are popular social media influencing the youth of Pakistan. However, the popularity of social media has also increased the risks that are accompanied with the technological advances – one of them being cyber harassment of women. Cyber harassment of women in Pakistan is a comparatively recent phenomenon that greatly impacts women yet often goes unreported. Traditionally Pakistani women have been harassed through indirect communication, but the use of prevalent social media has added more pain to their lives. Cyber harassment, blackmailing and extortions are becoming a pervasive problem in which the worst victims are women (Shahid, 2014). Of all the internet users in Pakistan, over 65 percent are aged between 18-29 years and women in this figure stand unprotected and vulnerable. Unfortunately, there is no strict check on the popular social media; people often abuse celebrities and leaders openly, access to personal material such as photos and documents is not restricted, and anyone can be humiliated in the name of religion, caste and creed. Pakistan is a deeply patriarchal society and there are several barriers for women to access justice, whether it is rape, domestic violence or cyber harassment. Women’s weak social status in the society may exacerbate the harassment over a longer period of time. Reports suggest that cyber harassment has increased significantly in Pakistan and perpetrators can escape easily; most of the attempts are anonymous, women are unwilling to report the crime and rely on ignoring it.

Digital harassment and cyber-bullying are increasing in Pakistan, a report in 2019 by the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) said. DRF’s cyber harassment helpline reported 2,023 cases or 146 calls every month during 2019 — accounting for 45 per cent of the overall complaints received in the last three years. “This is an alarming increase in the number of cases over time and a disturbing upward trend in cyber-harassment,” DRF said in a statement. At least “57 per cent of the complaints are from women” who registered personal complaints, followed by 30 per cent men who had called the helpline, the report stated. Most of the cases reported were from Punjab (57 per cent), followed by Sindh (15 per cent). Majority of the callers were aged between 21 and 25 years, while the most vulnerable group comprised “young women”. The report noted that social media platforms were becoming ground for online harassment. “The most number of complaints related to cyber-bullying were reported on WhatsApp (855), while 29 per cent of callers reported harassment on Facebook.” Although the report is based on 2019 data, Nighat Dad, the executive director of DRF, a research and advocacy NGO, said the organisation witnessed an exponential increase in the number of cases since the coronavirus pandemic and the consequent lockdown this year. “In the months of March and April, we saw an increase of 189 per cent as compared to January and February,” she said. pakistan’s first dedicated cyber harassment helpline is a nationwide initiative to provide legal, digital and psychological support to those facing threats online. Online harassment may include threats, cyber-stalking, hacking, revenge porn, trolling, hate crime and online impersonation.

According to provisions of section 21 and 24 of  PECA,2016:

21. Offences against modesty of a natural person and minor.—(1) Whoever intentionally and publicly exhibits or displays or transmits any information which,---

(a) superimposes a photograph of the face of a natural person over any sexually explicit image or video; or

(b) includes a photograph or a video of a natural person in sexually explicit conduct; or

(c) intimidates a natural person with any sexual act, or any sexually explicit image or video of a natural person; or

(d) cultivates, entices or induces a natural person to engage in a sexually explicit act, through an information system to harm a natural person or his reputation, or to take revenge, or to create hatred or to blackmail, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years or with fine which may extend to five million rupees or with both.

(2) Whoever commits an offence under sub-section (1) with respect to a minor shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and with fine which may extend to five million rupees:---

Provided that in case of a person who has been previously convicted of an offence under sub-section (1) with respect to a minor shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of ten years and with fine.

(3) Any aggrieved person or his guardian, where such person is a minor, may apply to the Authority for removal, destruction of or blocking access to such information referred to in sub-section (1) and the Authority, on receipt of such application, shall forthwith pass such orders as deemed reasonable in the circumstances including an order for removal, destruction, preventing transmission of or blocking access to such information and the Authority may also direct any of its licensees to secure such information including traffic data.

 

24. Cyber stalking.— (1) A person commits the offence of cyber stalking who, with the intent to coerce or intimidate or harass any person, uses information system, information system network, the Internet, website, electronic mail or any other similar means of communication to,---

(a) follow a person or contacts or attempts to contact such person to foster personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such person;

(b) monitor the use by a person of the internet, electronic mail, text message or any other form of electronic communication;

(c) watch or spy upon a person in a manner that results in fear of violence or serious alarm or distress, in the mind of such person; or

(d) take a photograph or make a video of any person and displays or distributes it without his consent in a manner that harms a person.

(2) Whoever commits the offence specified in sub-section (1) shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to one million rupees or with both:---

Provided that if victim of the cyber stalking under sub-section (1) is a minor the punishment may extend to five years or with fine which may extend to ten million rupees or with both.

(3) Any aggrieved person or his guardian, where such person is a minor, may apply to the Authority for removal, destruction of or blocking access to such information referred to in sub-section (1) and the Authority, on receipt of such application, shall forthwith pass such orders as deemed reasonable in the circumstances including an order for removal, destruction, preventing transmission of or blocking access to such information and the Authority may also direct any of its licensees to secure such information including traffic data.

 

New cyber threats

·       Another worrying trend in Pakistan is the “financial fraud and scams through mobile wallet and e-cash accounts” the report said, citing new cyberthreats and challenges.

·       Hackers are also tricking people by impersonating government officials and using various means, from phishing to malware , to hack into victims’ accounts.

Warnings for the public:

DRF, in its report, has urged people to enhance online security in order to remain safe from data breach. The public has been advised to:

1.     Avoid over-sharing of personal information in public posts.

2.     Control one’s privacy by keeping a check on security and privacy settings.

3.     Review login information.

4.     Stop ad tracking and ensure social media platforms and other websites are not tracking one.

5.     Disable location-sharing online.

 

 

Recommendations for officials:

The report has made several suggestions for policymakers to curb online harassment in Pakistan. It includes:

1.     Address the digital gap by removing financial, social and safety barriers.

2.     Gender-responsive measures and training of law enforces.

3.     Government urged to enact meaningful legislation on digital privacy and data protection.

4.     Switch the national cybercrime-related complaints portal to online platform as the current system in cumbersome.

5.     Allocate more resources for FIA’s National Response Centre for Cybercrime.

6.     Empower local police to process cases of online harassment.

7.     Training for judges on cybercrime law, internet governance and online harassment.

8.     Introduce a mechanism to deal with cases in foreign jurisdiction.

9.     Decriminalise defamation laws.

Cyber-harassment reporting mechanism in Pakistan

Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) National Response Centre for Cybercrime is the official channel to register cyber-bullying complaints.

FIA cybercrime wing:

Complainants have to go to the nearest FIA cybercrime office with a written application, evidence in hard copy and an ID card. Minors need to be accompanied by the guardians.

DRF cyber harassment helpline:

A private referral and redressal helpline that connects cyber-bullying victims with law-enforcement agencies and also offer legal, digital and emotional support.

 

In  2016, Pakistan’s parliament passed the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca), a set of laws which supporters contended would restrict online extremist content, prosecute hate speech, and curb harassment of women on the internet. Four years on, has the law made the internet safer for women in Pakistan?

Female journalists don’t think it has. On Aug 12, a group of noted women journalists issued a statement condemning a “well-defined and coordinated campaign” of online harassment against colleagues, including threats of violence. The human rights minister, Shireen Mazari said she found the statement’s details “disturbing”.

Some journalists said that previously when they had reported crimes under Peca, their complaints were ignored. Even worse, the law’s defamation provisions have been misused to harass women. They made it clear they did not want to turn to a law that abused human rights.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) implements Peca, and its cybercrime wing investigates complaints, especially from women. But in a country of 34 million internet users, the cybercrime wing has a team of only 500 individuals (400 of whom were added this year). One news report said that until 2018 there were only two women staffing the cybercrime help desk.

The agency does not have the resources to battle the daily scourge of gendered online harassment. Digital rights activist Shmyla Khan said that if every woman who faced online harassment reported to the cybercrime wing, “the institution would break”.

Men dominate the FIA, and their track record shows they don’t grasp the nuances of gendered harassment and they pursue cases arbitrarily. In 2017, Digital Rights Foundation submitted a complaint about a Facebook account that repeatedly made derogatory memes about Nighat Dad, DRF’s founder. When asked for updates on the investigation, the agency said: “A public figure such as yourself must get these threats regularly, no?”

Similarly, Gharida Farooqi, a journalist behind the joint statement, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that one reason she faced online harassment was because a politician falsely accused her of having an affair with a minister in 2016. Farooqi said she lodged a complaint against the politician with the agency, but the investigation went nowhere. So, if investigating and curbing online harassment against women is not a priority for the FIA’s cybercrime wing, then what is?

In September, the FIA charged nine people under Peca’s Section 20, which makes it a criminal offence to transmit defamatory information. Human rights organisations are concerned by this provision because it duplicates existing law on defamation in the Penal Code, does not outline clear procedures, and provides the agency with broad discretionary powers over content decisions.

The agency charged female witnesses in a sexual harassment case against the man who lodged the criminal defamation case. Several feminist groups condemned the agency’s action: “Feminist groups across the country are appalled at the blatant weaponisation of the criminal defamation laws in Pakistan to silence victims and survivors of sexual assault and harassment.”

Moreover, the law requires the FIA to submit biannual reports to parliament; but in four years it has submitted only one. The numbers the agency shared are grim: it registered 8,500 complaints of women facing online harassment in 2018 and 2019. Agency officials told a parliamentary committee that blackmailing and harassment over social media were the most common complaints and that only 19.5 per cent of the complaints were investigated.

To say that these numbers are the tip of the iceberg would be an understatement. Mobility res­­­­­trictions and fear of their family’s reactions deter women from submitting formalised complaints since the agency requires women to go to an office, submit their CNIC number, phone number and father’s name.

Before Peca was passed, Human Rights Watch in a joint statement in 2015 expressing concern that the law would violate Pakistan’s human rights commitments. Peca’s provisions include allowing the government to censor online content and to criminalise internet user activity under extremely broad criteria. Human Rights Watch said that this “bill constitutes a clear and present danger to human rights on the pretext of addressing legitimate fears about cybercrime”.

These concerns have been borne out. The government needs to get serious about curbing gendered online harassment of women and overhaul Peca’s abusive provisions and the power structure that controls the investigative agency.

The agency needs to be held accountable for being dismissive about complaints brought by women. It needs to add gender-sensitised men and women to their help desk, helpline and investigation teams; and report to parliament as the law requires.