ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Twitterati made cyber bullying a trending topic on Tuesday night by contributing their reflections on this issue using #SayNoToCyberBullying.
As per detail, many twitter users expressed grief over how internet was being used by cyber bullies to target people.
Cyber bullying is real, just because someone is behind the screen doesn’t mean your words can’t harm them#SayNoToCyberBullying
— Tayyab Memon (@TayyabMemon) May 15, 2018
Cyber trolling is one of the biggest curses our paki twitter is facing. This should be stopped immediately because this has gone beyond limits now. People are trolling eachother for looks and their appearance which is not acceptable at all.
#SayNoToCyberBullying— Ammara. (@ammarayyy) May 15, 2018
Let your child know that it’s not his or her fault, and that bullying says more about the bully than the victim. Praise your child for doing the right thing by talking to you about it.#SayNoToCyberBullying
— ???????? (@lemezohaib) May 15, 2018
Misusing pictures and blackmailing people through it for wicked intentions is the lowest a cheapest person can stoop#SayNoToCyberBullying
— ???????? (@lemezohaib) May 15, 2018
Some users also came forward with their own personal stories.
My pictures were leaked once when I was in matric, I didn’t know till now why that happened and who did it but all I know is that at that time suicide was the only option that was coming up in my mind.#SayNoToCyberBullying
— SAD-RA (@AchaBsssFreeNhe) May 15, 2018
Whoever started this HT deserves
a big round of applause .
Let me name the biggest cyber bully of Twitter , Mr Farhan Virk , who bullied all my team and got my account suspended because exposed his lies . #SayNoToCyberBullying— Dr Ayesha (@DrAyeshaNaveed) May 15, 2018
Some twitter users shed light on the consequences of cyber bullying.
Cyber Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, and suicide#SayNoToCyberBullying pic.twitter.com/8rPabrtAij
— Sherlock Holmes (@AisaBiiHotaHy) May 15, 2018
People are getting depressed day by day just because of these bullying and trolling #SayNoToCyberBullying
— Aiman Siddiqui (@zada_hogai) May 15, 2018
These effects are horrible #SayNoToCyberBullying pic.twitter.com/OAks6E1YvK
— Sherlock Holmes (@AisaBiiHotaHy) May 15, 2018
The hashtag remained one of the top trends till the time of writing this report.
A website called Stopbullying.gov and managed by the US Department of Health and Human Services defines cyber bullying in these words:
“Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.”
While Pakistan’s Electronic Crimes Act 2016, PECA, does not have a specific punishment under the term “cyber bullying”, sections 20 and 24 broadly deal with this issue.
Under PECA’s section 20, a person may be sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined up to Rs.1 million if he/she spreads any information, using information system, about a person known to be ”false, and intimidates or harms the reputation or privacy of a natural person.”
Similarly section 24 of PECA lists punishment of three years and fine up to PKR one million for “Cyber stalking”, an act that involves “the offence of cyber stalking who, with the intent to coerce or intimidate or harass any person, uses information system, information system network, the Internet, website, electronic mail, or any other similar means of communication” to carry out a number of actions. These include reaching out to a person to strike a personal interaction despite his/her disinterest, monitor his/her use of internet, watch or spy upon the person in a manner that could result in fear of violence or serious alarm or distress in that person’s mind and lastly taking somebody’s pictures without consent and posting it a manner that could harm the person.
