Bill to criminalise online abuse of women moved in Parliament
On Friday, February 2, a private members’ bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha aimed at amending the Information Technology Act to categorise physical, sexual and violent offenses against women online, specifically targeting their caste, religion and sexuality.
The bill was brought in by Derek O’Brien of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), also the Leader of the Party in the Rajya Sabha.
In the course of presenting the bill, the MP put forth the suggestion to designate online threats against women as “cognisable and non-bailable offenses”, with penalties involving imprisonment for up to three years and/or a fine of up to Rs 50,000.
The proposed legislation aims to empower victims of online threats by enabling them to seek an injunction from the jurisdictional magistrate within a day against the accused or any other individual, company, organisation or entity to ensure the prompt removal of the offensive content and to prevent its storage, retransmission and repetition.
Furthermore, the bill suggests the criminalisation of actions targeted at any woman with the intent to intimidate, discredit, coerce her into expressing a specific view, opinion or observation, or to compel her to withhold a particular perspective. Such actions encompass threats of physical violence, sexual assault, doxxing, dissemination of false information, false prosecution, challenges to a person’s citizenship, imputation of disloyalty to India and abuse based on religion, caste or sexuality.
