Sexual harassment in cyber space

Traditionally, harassment has been viewed as a face-to-face encounter between a bully

and a victim in view of an audience of peers. A new method of peer harassment has
emerged, known as cyber-harassment, or, cyber-bullying. These terms are used
interchangeably to refer to harassment that is directed through the use of information and
communication technology.
Cyber sexual harassment can be defined as sexual harassment that primarily occurs over
the internet. Women are the primary recipient of offensive and often aggressive sexual
advances and defamatory messages in cyberspace from anonymous and fake sources.
Online sexual harassment can occur through different mediums as chat rooms, social
network sites, messaging, e-mails, automatic linking or spams. Most of sexual harassment
acts takes one of these forms;
1. Gender harassment in which harasser use gender-humiliating comments or sexual
remarks or images,
2. Online sexual attention using direct personal communication to convey sex-
related messages,
3. Sexual coercion through pressuring the victims to obtain sexual cooperation
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. 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).
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. 
There are some common pattern in most of the cases of cyber violence against women in
Bangladesh.
Often heinous acts of rape are recorded by criminals in the form of videos and
photographs. Then they use it to silence the victim. But that doesn't end there. Often,
these recordings are used to force the victim to submit - to have sexual relations,
blackmail for money, etc.
In another pattern, the offender take their time to gain the trust of their victims. Then they
convince their prey to have the physical relationship in a safe place as 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. As usual, these recordings are
released on the internet.
Another common pattern is posting of intimate photographs and videos by ex-husbands
and lovers on the internet as a means of revenge.
As example we can see a fact which is,
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.
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.
Another 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 rape you” and “We
will teach you a lesson” literally engulfed social media.
Bangladesh legislated an ‘ICT Act’ 2006 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.
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 July 28, 2013 to February 10, 2016, the Cybercrime Tribunal
received 520 cases and from this 328 cases were dropped.”
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.

So, I 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 adopt some legal steps to protect women
form Sexual harassment in cyber space.