The Author, Ananya Semwal is a 1st-year B.A.LLB student at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab.
The tort of cyber defamation is an act of intentionally insulting, defaming or offending another individual or a party through a virtual medium. It can be both written and oral. Today Internet has given us an opportunity to share our opinions globally. We can easily post something and it gets viral just in few minutes. For example if you are against any government policy you’ll write your views and people who agree with you would start sharing it. But today what people fail to understand is that stating an OPINION is different from stating a FACT.
Unfortunately nowadays more and more people are experiencing cyber defamation. Consider the recent Gurugram suicide case in news, a 12th standard boy committed suicide, when a girl posted an Instagram story, where she accused him for rape. She said that she was raped by him two years ago and has no proof to justify her statement. Her story instantly got viral and people to show their support started sharing it without giving a thought to the truth. The accused was pronounced guilty by the court of Instagram. This new social media law society of India caused that little boy his life.
Under our Indian law, the person who defames you can be sued along with the person sharing and reposting that content. All those actions, sharing, liking, retweeting and or commenting may be taken as a republication of defamatory content – the act of republishing from social media is so simple that users give little thought to the serious consequences which may result. [i]Most of them think that deleting a story or post afterwards would be enough but Internet keep records, and they could be held responsible for reposting serious negative content.
Focusing on online defamation, the elements necessary for a statement to qualify as defamatory statement are:
MODIFICATION
Pictures which are modified to degrade the reputation of another person are also clear case of defamation.
FACT
The statement should be presented as a fact not as an opinion. Facts are statements which can be proved accurate or inaccurate while opinions are your personal perspectives.
PUBLICATION
The statement of fact should be published on the social media ground, and then only one can file a complaint for defamation.
OPINIONS
Opinions are privileged under the law[ii]. So an opinion is not a defamatory statement. But at times, few opinions are considered as fact by the court if they have caused an actual damage to another party.
WHAT CAN YOU DO IF SOMEONE DEFAMES YOU ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
Mostly people decide to ignore negative comments by the name of trolling. But ignoring may not be an acceptable option always. You can decide to file a lawsuit against the defamer asking for damages and takedown of the false statement from the platform or you can also formally write to the social media platform on which the statement was published and ask them to take down the false content. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are wealthy companies, and can easily pay for your damages. If the concerned matter is very serious a branch of Crime Investigation Department called Cyber Crime Investigation cell is where you can file a complaint. These cells are opened in various cities and deal with serious cyber crimes done through internet and social media websites.
WHAT ARE THE LAWS APPLICABLE FOR CYBER DEFAMATION?
Cyber Defamation is a civil as well as a criminal proceeding against the accused. Some of the laws dealing with cyber defamation are:
INDIAN PENAL CODE, 1860 contains provisions to deal with sinister of cyber crime.
SECTION 500 of IPC
Whoever, by words either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs or by visible representations, makes or publishes any imputation concerning any person intending to harm, or knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm, the reputation of such person, is said, except in the cases hereinafter excepted, to defame that person.
SECTION 469 of IPC
Whoever commits forgery, intending that the document or electronic record forged shall harm the reputation of any party, or knowing that is likely to be used for that purpose shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.
SECTION 506 of IPC
The offense of criminal intimation by use of emails and other electronic means of communication for threatening or intimidating any person or his property or reputation.
Further, says that whoever threatens another with any injury to reputation or property, or to the person or reputation of anyone in whom that person is interested, with intent to cause alarm to that person, or to cause that person to do any act which he is not legally bound to do, or to omit to do any act which that person is legally entitled to do, as the means of avoiding the execution of such threats, commits criminal intimidation.[iii]
CONCLUSION
As the people of 21st century, we have freedom of expression as well as various platforms where we can share our views with the world. Social Media is now a way of life, where we can freely write, comment and post anything. But as said by Aurbey Peeples, “There are a lot of pros and cons of social media; it’s just how you choose to handle it and how you have to be prepared for the negatives as well.”
Sometimes effects of social media defamation can be far more dangerous on someone then we can expect. That is why online defamation is considered to have more extreme effects than offline defamation. There are various laws and cyber cell departments which are still growing and updating themselves. In fact schools should also start spreading awareness among children and parents should warn their children about the cons of using social media cites.
References:
[i] danielbrantley.com/defamation-and-social-media-how-the-law-has-changed/
[ii]injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/defamation-and-social-media--what-you-need-to-know.html
[iii] Indian Penal Code, 1860
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