Punish the Perpetrator for Publishing Personal Photo

Nicole Fox Fenlon, a 21 years old Irish lady affectionately known as Coco to her friends and family died in January 2018 by suicide after suffering years of awful physical and online abuse. Jackie Fox, her mother exposed that the physical and online bullying had continued even after Nicole had tried to take her own life in 2016. The abusers made fake Facebook pages, they pressed her all the time through Snapchat, WhatsApp and Messenger to go and hang herself. They even sent her videos of a noose, showing how to hang herself. The abusers used online platforms because they knew they would get away with it that way as there was no law to prevent and penalise online harassment then. As a result, Jackie converted her unbearable grief into changing the laws around online harm and fighting tirelessly to legislate a stringent legislation to criminalise persistent online abuse that could better protect others from online bullying, abuse, digital harassment, cyberstalking and revenge porn.

Subsequently, the Irish policy makers have enacted a new law namely the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act in 2020, otherwise known as Coco’s law to address a number of emerging online offences including: taking and distributing intimate images online without consent; online or digital harassment; a specific offence of stalking; an expanded offence of sending, threatening or indecent messages; and revenge pornography after years of campaign and struggle of Jackie Fox. Albeit, this new legislation was not there to safeguard Nicole Coco but it will shield others’ lives and families from having to suffer like her.

However, digital harassment like sharing or threatening to share intimate image online without consent is a global concern nowadays particularly after the evolution and popularisation of social and communication media. Almost every day male, female, transgender and children become victim of these crimes in anywhere of the world. There are many offences involved with these incidents i.e blackmailing, sextortion/extortion, fraud etc. The scenario of Bangladesh is not different as the scope and legal framework to deal with digital harassment is still narrow here.

‘I possess your intimate photos/videos and I am going to spread them if you don’t …’ is a common threat for both male and female in Bangladesh. Although incidents of online sexual harassment and/or cyber bullying are hardly reported by victims as it barely brings justice and social stigma along with the fear of victim blaming and character assassination. Limited implementation of existing laws to stop the offenders from engaging in such horrendous activities is another reason to not bring the issue into discussion.

However, there are a number of laws at present in Bangladesh i.e the Nari O Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain, 2000 (Women and Children Repression Prevention Act); the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Act, 2006; the Pornography Control Act, 2012 and the Digital Security Act (DSA), 2018 to deal with online harassment to some extent. Nonetheless, none of the above law is comprehensive to adequately address digital sexual harassment in social media and other online platforms. Like section 9A of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000 states whoever wilfully snatch the reputation or character of a woman without her consent and by this directly induce the woman to commit suicide shall commit an offence of inducing suicide and he shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to ten years and also liable with fine. The law does not specifically mention about digital harassment or online sexual violence like: sexting, online stalking, revenge porn or spreading intimate image online. It is also essential to train the staff working for the National Helpline for Violence Against Women and Children (109) to handle digital sexual crimes sensibly.  

Section 57 of the controversial ICT Act provides that anyone can be punished for any false and obscene posts online for a maximum of 10 years of imprisonment and maximum fine of taka 1 crore although it does not define the term ‘obscene’. The Pornography Control Act, 2012 makes it a crime if anybody entices any woman, man or child to participate in producing pornography and captures still images or videography of that with or without his knowledge under section 8(1). Furthermore, the Act has provision to penalize a person who harms the social or personal dignity of another person through pornography, or extorts money or any other benefit through fear, or mentally tortures through pornography recorded knowingly or unknowingly of that person (S. 8(2)). Distribution of pornography through internet, website, mobile phone or any other electronic device is also prohibited under section 8(3) the mentioned Act. Nevertheless, the Act focused only on pornography, not even revenge porn or other aspects of online sexual harassment. Again section 29(1) of the debated DSA merely penalizes dissemination of defamatory contents on online platforms whereas there is no mention about sharing or threat to sharing intimate photos or videos.

However, Coco’s law aims to prosecute the evolving forms of digital harassment by amending the previous concepts and provides anonymity to the victims of those crimes. Consequently, sharing or threatening to share intimate image online without consent and with or without intent to cause harm to the victim is a now a crime in Ireland. Intimate image denotes to a person’s underwear covered or not intimate part of body like genitals, buttocks, anal region and breasts, or a person who is nude or someone engaged in sexual activity. It is irrelevant whether the person in the image willingly took it and sent it to someone they trusted, if it is then shared with others without consent. It also includes a picture taken or content recorded without the knowledge of the person in the image. The punishment for this offence is up to seven years in prison and an unlimited fine. The law also recognizes it a crime which is often referred to as a ‘deep fake’ i.e send an intimate image purporting or claiming to be of another person even if the image is not actually of them.

The recording, distribution or publication of intimate image is also a punishable crime under the law, even if the person who records, distributes or publishes the image without consent, does not need to have intended to cause harm. It will be sufficient that the taking, recording or distribution of the intimate image seriously affected the other person’s peace and privacy or caused them harm, alarm or distress.

Now, the question is how long shall we wait for a Coco’s law in Bangladesh? Aren’t we hearing the misogyny of hundreds of thousands of victims of online sexual abuse and/or exposed intimate photo/video victims or shall we waiting for another Nicole Coco to dedicate her life to catch the attention of the legislators? In light of the sheer volume of digital sexual harassment in virtual world, a proper legislative mechanism should be considered to address the issue urgently.

It is true that there is no shame in someone's body rather it is reprehensible to threaten people by demonising their personal lives. However, this is high time to build safer digital Bangladesh by firstly recognizing these common offences happened on online platforms regularly and enact a new legislation like Coco’s law containing provisions penalizing all new forms of digital sexual harassment and a regulatory framework for prevention of these crimes from being circulated on social and communication media platforms. Moreover, the law has to create an easy and accessible complaint mechanism for all the victims of non-consensual distribution of private and/or intimate images maintaining anonymity. Additionally, the law should insert provision for conducting the proceedings in camera and ensuring that the victims do not have to undergo additional harassment from state institutions. Otherwise, the offenders will get immunity in absence of a concrete law and turn the virtual world of digital Bangladesh into a heaven for digital sexual harassment.

Published in the Desh Rupantor as Sub Editorial on 18 March 2023 on Page 4.

Published in the Dainik Bangla as Sub Editorial on 21 March 2023 on Page 8.

Published in the Progress Magazine as an Article in the November 2023 Issue.