Addressing Online Gender-Based Violence: Legal Limitations and Human Rights Concerns in Cyber Spaces

Online Gender-Based Violence (OGBV) is one of the emerging forms of abuse in the face of rapid growth of digital spaces and social media platforms. This research paper points out several dimensions of OGBV to understand how such violation impacts certain core human rights, namely privacy, freedom of expression, and equality. The main aim of the paper would be to hit disproportionately women and marginalized gender identities with key forms of abuse, such as cyberstalking, doxing, revenge porn, and online harassment. In doing so, it will discuss how such platforms contribute to the unfriendliness of these groups through weak regulatory mechanisms and content moderation policies. This paper will consider some of the most well-known cases of OGBV that have come to light in India: the notorious Bois Locker Room scandal, but also the Sulli Deals and Bullibai app cases, although the latter kind of two are not as sensational or recognizable: the diffuse, widespread online harassment of female public figures and journalists. This paper thus analyzes these cases to condemn the current legal structures of the Indian State, i.e., the Information Technology Act of 2000 and relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as an ineffectual legal structure for effectively protecting OGBV. The paper highlights challenges in enforcing the aforementioned laws, and the lack of proper support systems to a victim of such crimes. Hence, in addition to calling for greater accountability on the platforms, more stringent laws, and policies tailored for the victims, their fulfilment calls for that they are achieved now in both their legal and psychosocial capacities. This requires a study of the existing international human rights frameworks such as CEDAW or the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. This paper would look to develop a comprehensive strategy for addressing OGBV: legislative reform, digital literacy programs, and global cooperation toward safer online spaces for all genders.