Lok Sabha Question No. 98 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-07
Subject: Cyber Crime against Women
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Sujay Radhakrishna Vikhepatil, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, Krishna Pal Singh Yadav, Unmesh Bhaiyyasaheb Patil, Shrikant Eknath Shinde

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 98

TO BE ANSWERED ON 7.12.2022

## CYBER  CRIME AGAINST WOMEN

## 98. DR. SUJAY RADHAKRISHNA VIKHE PATIL:

PROF. RITA BAHUGUNA JOSHI:

DR. HEENA GAVIT:

DR. KRISHNA PAL SINGH YADAV:

SHRI UNMESH BHAIYYASAHEB PATIL:

DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government proposes a plan to deal with the cybercrime against women and hacking of their social media, if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has any action plan/ proposes to formulate a policy in order to address the hacking of social media platforms especially of women;
- (c)  if so, the details thereof; and
- (d)    the  details  of  the  number  of  cases  reported  by  the  cyber-crime  branch  with  respect  to social media hacking during the last three years and the current year?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

(a)  to  (c):  The  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  ('IT  Act')  and  rules  made  thereunder contain  several  provisions  for  safeguarding  users  in  the  cyberspace.  The  IT  Act  penalises various  cybercrimes  relating  to  computer  resources,  including  dishonestly  or  fraudulently accessing a computer resource without the permission of its owner commonly referred to as hacking (section 66), identity theft (section 66C), cheating by impersonation (section 66D), violation of bodily privacy (section 66E), transmitting of obscene material (section 67), and publishing  or  transmission  of  material  containing  sexually  explicit  act  in  electronic  form (section  67A  and  67B)  and  tampering  with  computer  source  documents  (section  65),  etc. Each such cybercrime is punishable with imprisonment for a period that may extend to either three  years  or  five  years,  and  as  per  section  77B  of  the  IT  Act  such  cybercrimes  are cognizable  offences.  These  cybercrimes  are  in  addition  to  various  cognizable  offences punishable  under  the  Indian  Penal  Code,  1860,  such  as  the  cognizable  offence  of  stalking using  electronic  communication  (section  354D).  As  per  the  provisions  of  the  Code  of Criminal Procedure, 1973, prevention and investigation of cognizable offences is to be done by the police. As per the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, 'Police' is a State subject and, as  such,  States  are  primarily  responsible  for  the  prevention,  investigation  etc.  of  such cybercrimes through the State police departments, which take preventive and penal action as per law, including in respect of cybercrimes against women and hacking of their social media accounts.

To help make cyberspace safe, trusted and accountable, the Central Government, in exercise of  powers  conferred  by  the  IT  Act,  has  made  the  Information  Technology  (Intermediary Guidelines  and  Digital  Media  Ethics  Code)  Rules,  2021,  which  require  intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, to observe, among others, diligence as under:

- (i) To publish on their website and app, their rules and regulations, privacy policy and user agreement;
- (ii) To inform the said rules to their users and to make reasonable efforts to cause the users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share, among  others,  information  which  belongs  to  another  person,  or  is  obscene,  or  is invasive of another's privacy, or is insulting or harassing on the basis of gender, or is racially  or  ethnically  objectionable,  or  encourages  money  laundering,  or  promotes enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion or caste with the intent to incite  violence,  or  is  harmful  to  child,  or  infringes  intellectual  property  rights,  or impersonates another person, or  threatens  the  unity,  integrity,  defence,  security  or sovereignty of India or public order, or prevents investigation, or violates any law;
- (iii) Upon receipt of an order from a lawfully authorised government agency, to provide information  or  assistance  for  prevention,  detection,  investigation  or  prosecution under law, or for cyber security incidents;
- (iv) To  have  in  place  a  grievance  redressal  machinery,  and  resolve  complaints  of violation of the rules within 72 hours of being reported;
- (v) In case an intermediary is a significant social media  intermediary ( i.e., an intermediary  having  more  than  50  lakh  registered  users  in  India),  to  additionally observe due diligence in terms of appointing a Chief Compliance Officer, a nodal contact person for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies and a Resident Grievance Officer, publishing monthly compliance reports, etc.

Further,  it  has  notified  amendments  to  these  rules  on  28.10.2022  to  provide  for  the establishment  of  one  or  more  Grievance  Appellate  Committee(s)  to  allow  users  to  appeal against decisions taken by Grievance Officers on such complaints.

In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairs operates a National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in)  to  enable  citizens  to  report  complaints  pertaining  to  all  types  of cybercrimes, with special focus on cybercrimes against women.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is also implementing the Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) Phase-II project to build capacities in the  area  of  information  security,  train  government  personnel  and  create  mass  information security  awareness  for  various  users.  Under  this,  a  large  number  of  awareness  workshops have been conducted across the country, school teachers trained as master trainers to reach out  to  crores  of  users  in  the  indirect  mode  through  Cyber  Safety  and  Cyber  Security Awareness Weeks organised in select cities in collaboration with State Cyber Cell / Police departments,  mass  awareness  programmes  broadcasted  through  Doordarshan  /  All  India Radio, bimonthly newsletters published in print and digital mode, and multilingual awareness content  in  the  form  of  handbooks,  multimedia  short  videos,  posters  etc.,  which  have  been disseminated through print, electronic and social media and made available for download on the ISEA awareness portal (www.infosecawareness.in). A self-paced three module e-learning course on Cyber Hygiene Practices has also been made available on the portal, under which a large  number  of  participants  are  registered  and  many  have  also  obtained  certification.  The material  designed  and  disseminated  includes  an  exclusive  handbook  titled Information Security  Awareness  handbook  for  Women,  and  booklets  on  Cyber  Security  tips  for Women and on Online Safety tips for Women@Home during COVID 19.

(d): Data on crime is maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau. As per the Bureau, no specific data with respect to social media hacking is available with it. The crime-headwise data under the category of cybercrimes against women is at Annex.

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Annexure

## Crime-head-wise cases registered under the category cybercrimes against women

| S. no.   | Crime heads   | 2018   | 2019   | 2020   | 2021   |
|----------|---------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|

| 1   | Cyber blackmailing or threatening {sections 506, 503 and 384 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), read with the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act)}               | 113   | 108   | 74     | 200    |
|-----|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------|-------|--------|--------|
| 2   | Cyber pornography or hosting or publishing obscene sexual materials {sections 67A or 67B (girl child) of the IT Act, read with other IPC or special and local laws (SLL)} | 862   | 1,174 | 1,655  | 1,896  |
| 3   | Cyber stalking or cyber bullying of women (section 354D of IPC), read with the IT Act                                                                                     | 738   | 785   | 887    | 1,172  |
| 4   | Defamation or morphing {section 469 of IPC, read with IPC and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986}                                               | 62    | 65    | 251    | 276    |
| 5   | Fake profile (read with IPC/SLL)                                                                                                                                          | 207   | 288   | 354    | 225    |
| 6   | Other crimes against women                                                                                                                                                | 4,048 | 5,995 | 7,184  | 6,961  |
|     | Total                                                                                                                                                                     | 6,030 | 8,415 | 10,405 | 10,730 |

Source: National Crime Records Bureau

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