When you have pretty pictures to post, cool statuses to update and friends' 'walls' to write on, reading the terms and conditions of the website, that too thoroughly, is probably the last thing on your mind. But it's about time you gave the 'terms' a serious read. The 'Terms and Conditions'contracts of social networks, which most users hastily and casually accept, are legally binding documents under the cyber law of the country.Fake profiles and politically charged comments on social networks are not uncommon, and what is getting even less uncommon by the day is people getting charged for these 'offences'.Recently,there has been an increasing number of cases where people have been arrested for making a fake profile of someone with notso-innocent intentions.According to cyber law experts, Sajai Singh and Prashant Kumar, " Section 66A(b) stipulates that a person guilty of sending information which he knows to be false and is aimed to cause annoyance,inconvenience danger etc,is liable to imprisonment for a term of up to three years and a fine. Fake profile on a social media may amount to false information.Further,the purpose of such fake profile is to take revenge,cause annoyance etc. Therefore,a fake profile may be categorized as an offense which is punishable under Section 66A(b) of the IT Act."
Why make a fake profile?
The break-up saga
Even superheroes have trouble dealing with heartache,and the users of social networks are only human.But apparently,some users tend to a go a little too far when dealing with break-ups - sometimes, far enough to be penalized, according to the IT Act, 2000. Instances of fake profiles being made, either by the name of the ex or by the name of a stranger to keep an eye on the ex, are becoming more common, according to some users. The cyber offences that the makers of these profiles can be charged with include 'cyber-stalking'and 'identity theft', in legal terms. "I had no idea that people could actually go to jail for this! After my break-up, I got online messages about my ex from fake profiles for months. I should have 'reported'them to the site,but I just blocked them," says Devika* from Daulat Ram College. "My friend made a fake profile to 'stalk' her boyfriend after they'd broken up.She would flirt with him using fake identities and see if he would flirt back. I did realize that that was wrong but had I known it was illegal, I would have warned her. In fact, she even made me create a fake profile to help her keep a watch on him. To think that he could have had us arrested!" says Mitali*, Ramjas College. "I don't understand why anyone would want to take the extreme step of getting someone legally reprimanded for this stuff. You can just report them and their profile will be deleted automatically,"says Aneesh Kumar,Hansraj College. According to the experts, this can lead to imprisonment for a term of up to three years, and a fine.
Section 66A - Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication services, etc. Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device,
(a) any information that is grossly offensive or has a menacing character; or
(b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device,
(c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine.
The annoying frenemy
The love-hate relationships of some users,if taken too far, can get them into legal trouble, apparently. "I thought it was just a virtual version of catfights. Two of my classmates had a fight, and one of them created a fake profile by the other's name. She put up some funny and insulting stuff about her, and after a few days, they sorted it out between themselves," says Rohit Raj, Hindu College. "A guy in my school was seen to be a little 'feminine', so the other boys in his class created a profile by his name which was both homophobic and rather offensive.The profile had an edited picture of him with flowers in his hair. The user name was 'Akhil Gay Kapoor*' and under personal details,they put,"bobby ka darling". They'd put all kinds of abusive status updates. Some of us reported abuse against the profile and the network deactivated it," says Mudita Lamba, a law student."Fake profiles are taken very casually.Back in school, some of my classmates had made a mocking profile of the class topper which said stuff like she didn't have a life and she couldn't get laid, etc. Ek toh kisi ko pata nahi hai inn laws ke bare mein, and I don't think anybody is going to take them seriously unless something happens,"says Shima Naseem, an MA student.
The khadoos teachers
You can crib about how mean they are, you can even call them names behind their backs - but trust the lawyers, you don't want to make pseudo profiles by their names, because if they take offence, you could end up in a legal soup. "A teacher of ours makes us copy books, cover to cover, by hand, as punishment. So some of us created a profile by his name and posted pictures and videos of him that we had made chupke se," says Tushar*, who passed out of a school in West Delhi. "Our teacher keeps taking double classes and it gets absolutely unbearable, so we created a spoofy profile by her name. Another teacher found out and was furious. Coming to think of it, the ignorance (about cyber laws) could have seriously cost us," says Ankita*,an MA student."A teacher of ours was short and slightly overweight.She was a good teacher, but since, at that time, we thought it was cool to mess with teachers, we created a profile by her name where the personal information about her mentioned her height as 1.5 feet and the weight too was exaggerated.People even used to put up funny status updates by her name," says Aparna*, DCAC.
What else can get you into trouble
The "please do fraanship with me"messages on social networks too, apparently, can get the senders of these messages into trouble, if the recipient files a complaint against the sender. According to the lawyer duo, "SPAM need not be only bulk emails. Even a single email may amount to SPAM - for instance,a person sending a mail expressing his/her interest in another person over email. However, much depends on how the recipient perceives the mail and how the court reads the message.So far,police and other authorities have been less than enthusiastic about investigating such SPAM unless the SPAM includes any offensive message.The person guilty of sending the message may be liable to imprisonment of up to three years and a fine."
It's not just messages on social networking sites - even unsolicited messages on instant messenger services can be reported.This is known as SPIM,say experts. Apparently,even sending someone bulk email that might harm the recipient's computer is a chargeable offence. "It is known as a DOS Attack, short for Denial of Service Attack. DOS Attack means an attack due to which the victim's computer system might not function normally.That might include sending a large number of mails to the same system, thereby clogging it - for instance, a kid sending a large number of mails to his school so that the email server of the school does not function or is disrupted. A DOS attack might be construed as be an offence under Section 43, read with Section 66 of the IT Act, and the person guilty of the same might be liable for imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to 5 lakh," says Kumar.
All my friends know my password
Apparently, some people feel that sharing the password to their online accounts is one of the unsaid vows of friendship. What they don't seem to realize is the downside of over-sharing. "My boyfriend and best friend know the passwords to all my accounts. It's just sweet,I think,"says Manvi*, a first year DU student. "My friend's boyfriend had the password to her Facebook account. They broke up, and he changed the password to all her accounts. It got really ugly. She lost out on a lot of study material.And then he asked all the guys on her chat list if they had dated her.She still can't use that email address and has made a new one," says Nimisha Kalra, a student of class XII.
"My friend did not talk to me for a week because I wouldn't let her look at the keyboard while I typed my password. She thought that I did not trust her. But why would you share your password with anyone anyway?" asks Ritika Sharma, a DU student.
According to Singh and Kumar, "Section 66c of the IT Act states that whoever, fraudulently or dishonestly, makes use of the electronic signature, password or any other unique identification feature of any other person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to a fine which may extend to 1 lakh."
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