Cyber violence against women: the case of Bangladesh

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1. Introduction

Women in Bangladesh are disproportionately targeted by online and technology facilitated violence and harassment. While the expansion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and growing internet penetration are considered as positive indicators of development in the country, but their interaction with certain pre-existing social-physiological settings related and inadequate legal protections have led to increased cyber violence against women. In most cases, the form of this glaring violation of human rights ranges from cyber stalking, revenge porn, cyberbullying, and trolling. Women are the primary recipient of offensive and often aggressive sexual advances and defamatory messages in cyberspace from anonymous and fake sources. False and altered unclothed pictures of women along with spam, sex-act videos, rape threats, and indecent proposals have become the new norm of social media.

Women are the primary recipient of offensive and often aggressive sexual advances and defamatory messages in cyberspace from anonymous and fake sources. False and altered unclothed pictures of women along with spam, sex-act videos, rape threats, and indecent proposals have become the new norm of social media.

2. Current Scenario
 

Access to internet in Bangladesh is growing very rapidly through mobile telephony, the total number of internet subscribers has reached 85.918 million at the end of April, 2018. More the 93 percent of these subscribers use internet on mobile phones, rest of them are ISP or PSTN users (BTRC, 2018). As of April, 2018 total number of people using mobile phones are more than 150 million (BTRC, 2018). With this proliferation of internet and mobile phones, use of social media platforms has been increased, 29 million registered Facebook users of which 86 percent use Facebook from their mobile devices. At least one third of the subscribers of mobile phones and internet are women.

Access to internet in Bangladesh is growing very rapidly through mobile telephony, the total number of internet subscribers has reached 85.918 million at the end of April, 2018. At least one third of the subscribers of mobile phones and internet are women.

In Bangladesh, particularly young women are more likely than men to face severe online abuse that is sexualized and violent. In spite of weak institutional protection, women often make formal report of harassment, abuse, and violence originated from online spaces. According to a study, 73 percent of women internet users have reported cybercrime (Zaman, Gansheimer, Rolim, & Mridha, 2017). As of December, 2017 the government’s Information and Communication Technology Division’s Cyber Help Desk has received more than 17,000 complaints, 70 percent of complainants were women.

As of December, 2017 the government’s Information and Communication Technology Division’s Cyber Help Desk has received more than 17,000 complaints, 70 percent of complainants were women.

Unwanted and wanted exposure of online pornography among the young population led to other associated risks such as image-based abuse of users where women are highly disproportionately targeted. In 78% of these cases related with digitally manipulated images with pornographic materials, the victim is found to be a woman. It may be noted that, almost 77% of the country’s teenagers watch pornography on a regular basis (MJF, 2014).

Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers’ Association noted in June, 2017 that harassment remained a problem and monitoring and enforcement of the guidelines were poor, which sometimes prevented girls from attending school or work. The formation of complaints committees and the installation of complaints boxes at educational institutions and workplaces required by the Court’s directive were rarely enforced (USSD, 2017).

Often women end up with their social media accounts hacked. The perpetrators would then upload fake, undressed pictures of the victim to victimize them. Also, indecent messages are sent from her account to her contacts (i.e. Facebook friends) to undermine and dishonor the victim. Among the key motives of such cyber-crimes against women are defaming the victim; revenge; compelling the victim for physical relation; blackmailing for money; physiological torture; ego and power trips; the obsession for love and emotion etc.

. Among the key motives of such cyber-crimes against women are defaming the victim; revenge; compelling the victim for physical relation; blackmailing for money; physiological torture; ego and power trips; the obsession for love and emotion etc.

A quick review of the lawsuits, investigations and media reports reveal a somewhat common pattern among most of the cases of cyber violence against women in Bangladesh. Quite often heinous acts of rape are recorded in the form of video and photographs by the criminals. They then go on to use these to silence the victim. But it doesn’t end just there. Most often, these recordings are used to keep forcing the victim into submission – to keep having physical relationships, blackmailing for money etc.

In another pattern we notice, the perpetrators take their time to gain the trust of their victims. They then convince their prey to have the physical relationship in a supposedly safe place (i.e. hotel rooms, friend’s home) where hidden cameras are set up beforehand. After their intimate moments are recorded, these are used to blackmail the victims if they don’t submit to the will of the perpetrators. As usual, these recordings are released on the internet nonetheless. Another common pattern is posting of intimate photographs and videos by ex-husbands and lovers on the internet as a means of revenge. Young girls who are newly introduced to the internet and are rather inexperienced in the cyber world are consequently most susceptible to falling into the traps set by cybercriminals.

3. Effects of cyber violence

In a somewhat conservative society like Bangladesh, the effects of cyber violence against women are not limited to the victims. They have a chain reaction on their families and eventually tear a hole in our social and moral fabric.

It has been observed that most people generally believe everything posted in social media. Lack of awareness, ignorance and education results into a shallow public psychology which is a major reason for such indiscriminate belief system. As a result, when a girl’s exposed photographs are published along with a spicy fabricated story, general internet users do not go into analyzing whether it’s true or false. They are rather happy to consume such content and become interested to spread the gossip. Such tendency helps make almost any kind of online sex-related chatter go viral thereby amplifying the victim’s suffering by a thousand times. Not to mention the misery of the victim’s family members who face social exclusion, humiliation and public resentment (Karaman, 2017).

In a somewhat conservative society like Bangladesh, the effects of cyber violence against women are not limited to the victims. They have a chain reaction on their families and eventually tear a hole in our social and moral fabric.

At an individual level, such cyber violence lead to severe depression, guilt, embarrassment, self-blame, apprehension and fear of harm to self and family members. Consequently, it leads to shattering the victim’s career, education and social life. Some victims take the route of drug addiction while some choose to end their lives. Only in a handful of exceptional cases do we see the victims recover from such a tragedy.

From 2010 to 2014, Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association identified a total of 65 reported suicide attempts by female victims of violence. It also reveals that on an average, every year there are 11 suicide attempts by women due to cyber violence. By contrast, in 2008 this number stood at 8 revealing a sharp increase in the trend. Needless to mention, the official statistics is just the tip of the iceberg. The number of unreported cases far outweighs the reported ones (BNWLA, 2014).

Every year there are 11 suicide attempts by women due to cyber violence.

Cases and Instances
There are numerous instances of cyber violence against women in Bangladesh. Far too many to cover within the limited scope of this write-up. A few of them are discussed in the following section to a limited extent.


15th April 2015 marked ‘Pohela Boishakh’, 1st day of the Bengali New Year as a nationally shameful day when we witnessed 30 men ripping off women's' clothing in broad daylight in the capital city of Bangladesh where the victims were celebrating New Year in traditional cultural events. As the pictures of this incident flooded social media, thousands of comments were posted on the internet to justify the culprits’ actions as many conservatives believe such traditional events go against Islam. Moreover, women who raised voice for justice were threatened with sexual violation in various social media platforms and blogs. This incident reveals that violence against women online can transcend beyond individual hostility to a mob aggression.¹


A rather similar example is the case of Lucky Akhter and Sharmin. These two women who were very active during the Shahbagh movement (a nationwide campaign to put war criminals on trial) were subjected to sexual harassment as well as verbal attacks, both online and offline to an unimaginable extent. In the opinion page of one of the most reputed national newspapers named the Daily Star, a lot of abusive comments about Lucky; her body, her sexuality, and fictional sexual relationships were published. Morphed photos of her bare body, many showing people molesting her with images of their genitals spread all over the internet. Comments like, “We will fuck you”, “We will rape you” and “We will teach you a lesson” literally engulfed social media.²


A university student, on conditions of anonymity, told that she met a boy via Facebook which turned into a love affair. Later, she ended up spending some private moments with him at a place of that boy’s friend. Soon after, the boy started blackmailing her for money threatening to post a compromising video of her on the internet which he had captured with a hidden camera. “I told everything to my family members, and gave him the money,” she said (Abir, 2015).


Just like the above mentioned girl, many others are fast becoming the victims of unreported cybercrime. From schoolgirls to housewives - women are the primary target of cyber criminals. In a survey, a national newspaper named The Independent identified 55 girls who fell victim to cybercrimes.³


A case filed in Shahbag police station in 2014 goes like this - a male university student had an affair with a girl since 2008 and after breaking up, he uploaded a video of their intimate moment in a porn site which was captured by a hidden camera. As soon as her father found out about this, he filed a case in the police station.⁴


Public prosecutor of cyber tribunal Nazrul Islam said, majority of the cases of the tribunal are nearly same in nature. A boy had a relation with a girl and then pictures or videos of their private moments are uploaded in Facebook or porn sites. In most cases the perpetrator is an ex-husband or boyfriend. Also, in maximum instances, the victim wasn’t aware that the criminal was recording her pictures or videos.⁵

4. Legal procedures and measures
 

Bangladesh legislated an ‘ICT Act’ in 2006 (amended in 2013) to combat cybercrime and online harassments. However, the provisions of this Act are quite insufficient to undertake legal measures appropriately as it does not address gender-based violence online in a clear and effective manner. Similarly, the ‘Telecommunication Act 2001’ does not address the gender-based violence that occurs via the use of telecom networks or the internet. The Pornography Control Act is not properly used to combat cyber violence because of the institutional corruption and powerful allies with the ruling politics. The influential remains safe always if the victims are poor. Also, Bangladesh has formed a ‘Cybercrime Tribunal’ that addresses cyber violence. However, according to most accounts, around 90 percent of the instances of online violence are not reported by the victims. Information received under Right to Information (RTI) Act reveals - "from 28.07.2013 to 10.02.2016, the Cybercrime Tribunal received 520 cases of which 328 cases were dropped.” News media in Bangladesh are mostly unable to notice the angel of gender violence in cybercrime.
 

Around 90 percent of the instances of online violence are not reported by the victims. Information received under Right to Information (RTI) Act reveals the Cybercrime Tribunal received 520 cases of which 328 cases were dropped.

Under the existing laws of Bangladesh, any kind of online expression that is false, obscene, defamatory, hurtful to religious sentiment, likely to hurt the image of the nation, or constitutes pornography is a criminal offense. Those responsible can be prosecuted for such online offences either in the ordinary criminal courts, special tribunals on violence against women, or cyber tribunals - depending on the nature of the offence. Those affected, as well as third parties, may make complaints to regulatory authorities, law-enforcing agencies, and/or to the internet service providers or social networking sites. They may also seek the right to removal of compromising data from websites as well as punishment of the offenders and compensation. And yet, despite this plethora of remedies, there remain a very small proportion of cases that actually result in criminal prosecutions or any form of legal action, while little public information is available about the status or outcomes of such complaints (Abir, 2015).

Bangladesh police have opened a cyber wing to deal with the increasing number of cyber threats and it is responsible for monitoring cybercrimes and tracking the criminals. But gender-based violence online is not covered as a specific action. Also, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is working to regulate and monitor cybercrime. This commission blocks inappropriate websites, blogs, and Facebook accounts. On the other hand, there is concern that sometimes the overreach of legal tools related to the safety of women in cyberspace help the enforcing agencies to create restriction of freedom of expression. For instance, some victim of cyber violence take legal action under section 57 of ICT Act which also criminalizes the posting online of inflammatory or derogatory information against the state or individuals, thus stifles freedom of speech. Though the percentage of women among people who invoked section 57 of ICT act is very low (Zaman, Gansheimer, Rolim, & Mridha, 2017). A Right to Information application received a response that, out of 520 cases filed under the law over three years, 90 cases were filed by women between March 2013 to February 2016.

There is concern that sometimes the overreach of legal tools related to the safety of women in cyberspace help the enforcing agencies to create restriction of freedom of expression.

5. Conclusion
 

To conclude, we think, there is need of scrutiny about whether laws that are criticized for encroaching upon the freedom of expression are the best tools for protecting women from violence on cyberspace. Because provisions like section 57 of ICT act are not specific about cyber violence against women, and also does not recognize the variety of technology-mediated violence against women as offenses. Hence, the number of women seeking justice is still very low in Bangladesh. The government should not employ vulnerabilities of women to online violence for claiming more restriction on freedom of experience, rather what needed is new and specialized law deliver justice against online abusers of women. More particularly, the government should adopt legal mechanisms to protect the anonymity of complainants in both civil and criminal proceedings brought by women in this type of cases.

There is need of scrutiny about whether laws that are criticized for encroaching upon the freedom of expression are the best tools for protecting women from violence on cyberspace. Because provisions like section 57 of ICT act are not specific about cyber violence against women, and also does not recognize the variety of technology-mediated violence against women as offenses.