ISSUING THREATS ONLINE IS CATCHING ON

According to a data recorded by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2016, Mumbai ranks number one in cyberbullying, whose most common forms of online harassment are abuse, insults and malicious gossip and rumours. With the new trend, the accused have begun issuing threats on social media platforms to the persons since the past few months. The accused persons who often disagree with people who have an opinion which does not match to theirs, very casually write malicious words about the person in the lines of death and rape threats.

The data procured by the Mumbai police cyber cell revealed that the year 2016 saw a whopping 980 cases of cyber crimes, out of which 51 percent cases contributed to cyber bullying. Shockingly, the most common factors seen in victims who were cyberbullied suffering from either poor mental health or were dealing with weight issues. Latest form of cyberbullying has begun in the form of death and rape threats.

One such case of rape threat was given to a Mumbai-based woman on the social networking website, Facebook.

A man from the United States of America threatened the victim of gang rape on the social media platform, just because he did not agree with what the woman opined. After registering a complaint with the cops, she was given an excuse stating since the USA has stringent privacy laws, they cannot identify and nab the accused through the Internet Protocol (IP) address.

A cyber expert told the Free Press Journal, "It is seen that many threats are being issued on the internet, which clearly shows that they are not afraid of being caught anytime soon. After commenting on a social media, or making a threat online, it is very easy to nab the accused by tracking the IP address.”

Giving an insight on the mentality of the accused person to go to lengths to show displeasure, a criminal psychologist added, “What matters to the accused is to be vocal about their dissatisfaction over a certain issue and show the displeasure by issuing such threats, not caring about the consequences."

Recently, a Congress party spokesperson was threatened with rape of her teenage daughter on the social networking website, Twitter. The police nabbed the accused from Gujarat within two days by tracking the IP address.”The miscreants target strong women who are in a position to give their opinion, trying to break their confidence, which does not make them any better or bigger person,” added Chaturvedi.

In a similar style of threat, Nationalist Congress Party MLA Jitendra Awhad too had received death threats in the month of July, on Facebook. The accused in this case was a worker of a rival political party, who had abused Awhad mentioning his sisters and mother, and issued a death threat.