With another new year, I enter the 9th year as a
blogger. In these 9 years I got to see emergence of different sorts of crimes against women on
the cyber space. While in India the most bothersome type of victimisation
targeting women is definitely creating fake avatars in the social media or in
the adult networking websites, one can understand that emergence of irresistible
misogynist trolls in the social media also claims attention of every one now. Way
back in 2013 in my article “Examining the scope of Indecent representation of
Women (Prevention) Act, 1986, in the light of Cyber Victimization of Women in
India”, published in National Law School Journal, 11, 188-218, I researched
about fake avatars and trolls. These topics later found vital places in my Ph.D
dissertation thesis only to remind me that these issues will never die until the
victim lets them die a natural death either by ignoring them or by reporting
the matter to the concerned authorities.
Trolls find a
unique place in social media especially in India because they are not ‘recognised’
by any laws in India as specific ‘offenders’. They feel ‘overpowered’ because
of this to express their opinions in several threads, blog posts, media news
clippings etc. However, they stand apart from other individuals who express
their opinions because of their language in which they communicate: it is
impolite, arrogant, hateful and often misogynist. There are different types of
trolls who communicate their expression in such way. These may include
workplace place trolls, information seeking trolls, lime-light seeking trolls, fan-club
trolls, educational institute trolls, activist trolls racist trolls, political
trolls, State sponsored trolls and also misogynist trolls in particular. The list
may include many other types of trolls existing in social media and on internet
in general. Misogynist trolls take to internet and social media to disrupt
discussion about women, which may include discussions about welfare measures as
well. One such example is this continuous publication of troll posts, which
appeared in the official Facebook page of ministry of women and child
development (MWCD) when the concerned minister Ms.Maneka Gandhi, announced for
several welfare measures for women including the publication of Handbook on
sexual harassment of women at workplace. While many stakeholders expressed their
opinions in these threads in Facebook, misogynist trolls found their own way to
entertain themselves by insulting others, especially women. Among these, one
troll post which repeatedly targeted women, expressed anger on the issue of
safety of women in the workplace, other expressed anger for the issue of
special treatment of women . The bone of the contention was, if women can not
endure workplace politics and back biting, which is often seen as ‘workplace
harassment’ by researchers and activists, then it is best for women to stay at
home and cook for their husbands. Some
women protested the troll posts. Some chose to ignore. But these troll posts
started growing in number because no one actually banned them , but may have
chose to block them personally. I noticed one such troll post and reported the
matter to the Facebook as well as the Facebook page of MWCD. Fortunately my report was accepted with a
positive note from Facebook which removed the misogynist troll posts. But this
may be a temporary arrangement for no one was booked for any ‘offence’ and as
such, the opinions thus expressed in the FB page of MWCD may not actually invite any penal sanctions because
they are not targeting any particular individual, but women as a whole. Resultant,
the troll posts are back in the same FB page in different forms, showcasing
hatred towards women in different forms. Their omnipotent presence is felt
everywhere even in Twitter or Google hangout and they are becoming more
powerful understanding that using hateful words targeting women may make them
more (in)famous to gain easy lime light.
While S.66A
of the Information Technology Act was in use, many people had used it as well
as misused it. But hardly any one, including the police could properly use it
for preventing such misogynist trolls or opinions. I being an ardent fan of
positive use of S.66A argued for using it to prevent such misogynist opinions, racists’
comments, personal defamatory remarks etc on many occasions. Unfortunately in many occasions, either victims were not
ready to take the matter to the court and press for a good experiment of this
law, or the police showed complete apathy to such issues, which they felt were
trivial. Many activists suggested that trolls and bullies may be regulated
under different provisions, and S.66A should not be made alive because of this.
But I opine differently. In my recent article “A Retrospective Analysis Of
Section 66 A:Could Section 66 A Of The Information Technology Act Be
Reconsidered For Regulating “Bad Talk” In The Internet?” Published in Indian
Student Law Review (ISLR), 2015(1), pp 98-128, I documented my opinions in this
regard. But as I researched in this particular article, if misogynist trolls
can not be regulated because their posts may not give rise to threat to any particular
woman ( as it had happened in the case of Elonis decision), it does not mean
that they can grow with no fear of checks and balances. The moment troll posts
step into defamatory posts, the victim can and should consider taking the troll
to the proper authorities.
But here
again lies the problem of understanding: if the troll posts affect a more ‘powerful
victim,’ say for example, a corporate house for any particular product of them,
or a particular group of people, they may decide to take action against troll
collectively. But if it is an individual victim, the apathy of the social media
as well as the police may make the trolls more powerful. When social media does not take any heed to
the plea of the victim to prevent the troll from his activities, the troll may
start posting more vigorously with a twisted message as how he remains
literally ‘uncontrollable’. It is nothing but provocation to the victim to
counter response so that the troll can counter attack. Unless the police take a serious note by not
considering this as trivial, the trolls may continue attacking their victims
unless they get bored. It is expected that the concerned authorities,
especially the MWCD may take note of the situation and implements regulatory
provisions to control such disruptive activities in the name of free speech.
Please Note: Do not violate
copyright of this blog. If you would like to use informations provided in this
blog for your own assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as
“Halder D. (2016), “The irresistible misogynist trolls in the
social media”
8th February, 2016, published in
http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
