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(This piece has been republished from The Quint’s archives in light of our campaign, #TalkingStalking. It was originally published on 20 April, 2017.)
It's a perfectly normal day and you are going through your social media feed when you receive an obscene message from an unknown person. You choose not to respond? All well and good — till he begins to bully and threaten you to talk to him.
So what do you do?
Block him? Report him and forget about him?
You could, but does that solve the problem? No.
Something similar, but far more horrendous happened to 17-year-old Rana (name changed to protect privacy) in Udaipur, when an anonymous person sent her a picture of her face morphed on a naked body on Instagram, and then threatened to put it on Facebook if she didn’t respond.
Like any 17-year-old, she was scared and upset for a few days, but eventually told her family about it.
Her father took matters in his own hands, and went to the nearest police station to file an FIR.
But not only were the police unhelpful (they told the family “all these petty cases keep on happening”) – they also sought to victim shame her:
When the family attempted to approach the cyber cell next, they were told that it would take at least 25 days to get a lead in the case.
It was only after Rana’s sister, Saleha Paatwala, posted about the incident on her social media accounts – seeking help from the Ministry of Women and Child Development – that things were escalated.
8 days later, an FIR was finally registered.
But Rana's case is not an isolated one.
Last year in December, when 24-year-old Saniya Pasricha was stalked, she did not know that her stalker had created a fake account using her pictures and was chatting with random people using her name. When the police failed to help, she sought help from the WCD ministry.
However, in this case too, the person – who still has over 200 pictures of her – hasn’t been traced.
Many victims of cyber crime do not come out in the open and register a complaint, and even if they do, they are not taken seriously.
We spoke to cyber security expert Rakshit Tandon to find out what a person can do if s/he has faced any form of cyber crime. Here is what he had to say:
Tandon also elaborated on how many cases happen post break-up, involving stalking, and blackmailing – and in such cases, the victim should not be scared. Use of private pictures without consent is still a crime.
Dealing with an army of trolls who keep on harassing the person can be traumatising.
Senior advocate, Rebecca John told The Quint what happens when a cyber crime is reported:
Often, the police will try to evade a case of cyber crime by claiming that a fake ID has been used, making it difficult to hunt down the harasser. However, the truth is “they often do not want to take actions unless a rape or a murder has taken place,” says John.
Women are told to remain silent and ignore their harasser – but doing this only empowers the harasser.
We have the law on our side, women. It is time we come out in the open and speak up.
Also Read:
“R**di TV ki R**d Anchor...”: Barkha Dutt, Trolls & Sexual Slurs
For Women, Vicious Online Abuse is Just a Twitter Troll Away
For other Talking Stalking stories, click here.
(#TalkingStalking: Have you ever been stalked? Share your experience with The Quint and inspire others to shatter the silence surrounding stalking. Send your stories to editor@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335.)
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Published: 19 Apr 2017,02:07 PM IST