"Bois Locker Room" and what next we are waiting for?

Its only when such episodes get national publicity suddenly the whole digital world becomes awake, all so called human right activists become active and start hue and cry about regularisation of social media etc. These are the same people who were at forefront in matter of Palghar incident and came down heavily of Information Technology Act section 66A which ultimately led to abolition of the same.

What we sow we reap is old saying. Our society consists of the same people who had seen section 66A of I T Act as draconian and don’t wanted social media to be regulated. They saw regulating social media, which according to them is the biggest tool of freedom of speech and expression, as curtailment of Fundamental Rights and ultimately our Apex Court also viewed in similar perspective.

The underlying object of regulating social media with reasonable restrictions was never debated seriously and nobody has taken a futuristic view about the same. With many similar incidents gradually happening every passing day and when it comes to flash point in Bois Locker Room issue, people again started debating the need to regulate social media. So is this completion of the circle?

We stared with section 66A which regulated online posts on various grounds in 2008, then came 2015 Apex Court Judgement striking down section 66A of I T Act and now with the incident of Bois Locker Room there will be again enactment of some provisions for regulating social media. Unfortunately all this is happening when most awaited regulation regarding Personal Data Privacy is being studied by Indian Parliament. When in Puttuswamy case in July 2017, a need was felt to have a regulation to protect privacy of the individuals and the panel was formed under chairmanship of Justice Shrikrishna (Retd.) to draft new regulation. The Shrikrishna commission has submitted draft bill in July 2018 and it was before parliament since then and recently a high powered committee is again set up to finalise the same.

If this is the level of priority for Privacy regulation in India and in absence of section 66A of I T Act there in no deterrence to perpetrators of such heinous acts through Social Media and Bois Locker Room incidents will happen regularly.

What was the incident?

An 18 year, Class 12 student resident of Noida, started an Instagram group named "Bois Locker Room", on which obscene messages and morphed photos of underage girls were shared. 27 more students of prominent Delhi schools have been members of the group, some were underage and some 18 and older. The chatroom, conversation was exposed by a girl, who was targeted in the group chats and this has drawn massive anger, shock and disgust on social media. The manner in which Class 11 and 12 students casually discussed "gang-raping" girls, sexualized and slut-shamed those in screenshots of chats have gone viral on Twitter and other social media.
"We absolutely do not allow behaviour that promotes sexual violence or exploits anyone, especially women and young people, and have taken action on content violating our Community Standards as we were made aware of it," was the Facebook spokesperson’s response on the episode. The official age of joining Instagram is 13 or above in India as per their policy.
In India 13 year old person is not capable of entering into contract but these social media giants are making mockery of Indian regulation by allowing these young kids by providing them such platforms.
There are basically few questions which need serious debate according to me.

1)    Should social media be regulated? If yes by whom?

2)    Should social media obey right to be forgotten or right to modify one’s personal information?

3)    Do we have Personal Date Privacy Act as a national priority?

4)    Could porn contents be specifically moved to different domains like .xxx?

5)    Is this encroachment of digitalisation in every walk of life is must?

6)    Are people really aware about threats posed by AI and other activities?

7)    When Cyber Awareness Education will be taught to digital netizens?

Unless we collectively provide answers to these questions such incidents are bound to happen. For that instance even if you go through confession pages of schools you will find many such indecent acts by students, who I am sure are not teens.
If we investigate this scam, the first question comes to my mind is from where the teen got hold of the photographs? All of us know the answer is simple. The victims themselves might have uploaded these photographs without thinking that these photographs could be grabbed by anyone and used on any place on the earth. At the time of uploading picks they were never told what the consequences of such acts are. I can go one step further and caution the readers that there are syndicates which are trapping many persons carrying out indecent act on camera and blackmailing them.
Second question is regarding how teens of age group13/14 were given such liberty by their parents to use social media without proper supervision. Are those parents liable for punishment for acts of their minor wards? Yes they must be definitely penalised similar to new provisions in Motor Vehicle Act, where parents are liable for fine/jail term in case they handover vehicle to their under aged ward. Without parents supervision digital education will prove to be a disaster in country of digital illiterates.
Third question is under which provisions of law action will be taken and against whom?
This is very tricky situation because as per reports few are teens and will be protected being Juvenile. Those who are above 18 might not have passed any comments which could be strictly punishable under provisions of I T Act. If IPC is applied then act being committed in Cyber Space must be covered under provisions of I T Act and which provisions of I T Act are applicable? It’s not Identity Theft nor Personating nor Violation of Privacy as per various provisions of section 66 of I T Act. Can section 67 or 67A of I T Act be imposed?
What next is real question and answer for same is lies in answers of Seven questions posed by me earlier.
The power of collective will by self restraint, to make social media a better place can only make it possible. All the stake holders like we netizens, government of all the nations, social media giants along with search engines should come forward and extend best possible solution which will decide the course of future. From my side CYBER AWARENESS IS THE ONLY MANTRA which we are relentlessly carrying out since last decade.

Advocate Dr. Mahendra Limaye

About the author- Advocate Dr Mahendra Limaye is Cyber Legal Consultant and Cyber Law practitioner in India. He specifically practises in Information Technology Act based litigations before Civil as well as Criminal Courts in India. He has obtained his doctorate on topic Fundamental Rights and Cyberspace. He can be contacted on mahendralimaye@yahoo.com or + 919422109619.