Two weeks ago, media houses in the UAE reported how a Kerala youth was sacked by his Sharjah-based company for abusing a woman journo through Facebook.
While the incident came as a shocker to many in the State, officials with the Kerala police cyber cell maintained that it was not the first such case involving a youth from Kerala. A cursory glance at the police statistics suggests that abuse of women on social media and messaging applications is rising by the day. For instance, a bulk of the 225 cybercrime cases reported from Kerala between June, 2016, and February, 2017, relate to online stalking wherein women were abused on social media platforms. “About 51 complaints relate to online fraud and cheating while about 70% of the remaining cases are related to derogatory comments and photos posted on Facebook, the most common form of online abuse reported here,” said a senior Cyber Cell officer.
In terms of the number of cases, Ernakulam topped the chart with 51 cases, closely followed by Thiruvananthapuram with 47 cases. Kottayam comes third with just 19 cases.
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Meanwhile, official estimates also showed that about 1,150 cases had been registered across the State in this connection between 2012 and 2016, May. According to police officials, those facing legal action also included 15 police officers. Of these, about eight were placed under suspension pending further inquiry.
“They are facing action for violating provisions of social media norms for policemen, as directed by the police headquarters through a circular in December 2015. Though not essentially abusive, their posts were found to be intended to defame the government in some way or the other,” they said.
Poor rate of detection too is a cause for concern as the servers of prominent social media sites are located outside India. The police have so far submitted charge sheets in 34 cases while investigations into 148 cases are yet to be completed.
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“Several accused persons wanted in this connection live abroad, which has also made it difficult for sleuths to trace them,” officials said.