DCW Plans Cyber Cells For Women Facing Online Harassment

Amid the rising concern over online safety, Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Malliwal has announced that the commission is planning to start a cyber cell to aid women who face trolling and harassment.

“We will be filing FIRs after complaints from girls. We will check with the police as to why they are not registering FIRs, why they are not arresting the people involved in harassment and threats. It is also very important to create these cells, at least with the commission, because there is absolutely no research right now,” said Malliwal at SheThePeople.TV’s Online Safety Summit that was held in New Delhi.

Malliwal pointed out that there is no data on how much abuse is happening online and research into how many cases were sent to the police and in how many cases police actually took action

Explaining the specifics of the cyber cell, Malliwal said, “We will also oversee what were the reasons that led to harassment or whether the social media platform responded after reporting abuse. All this will help create better laws to tackle this.”

The DCW chief also talked about how she deals with her own trolls. “There are a certain kind of people who I don’t like to engage with. There is a saying that goes like ‘If hurl dirt on a pig, the pig gets happy and you get dirty’, so whenever people troll me, that’s the thought that goes on in my mind. And I don’t want to make the pig happy.”

“That said, there is so much of online hate and misinformation which forms the basis for generating hatred and that is where I feel people like us must counter it. In cases where fake information is doing the rounds in media and in a much exaggerated manner, then obviously you have to react and put the truth across,” added Malliwal.

Here's hoping that the DCW's cyber cell initiative is a great success!

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