Overview:
Technology has affected every sphere of our lives, and personal relationships aren’t untouched from it. With the increasing number of ‘revenge porn’ cases coming to light, it is, therefore, important for every person to be aware of the laws surrounding the same.
Revenge porn is defined as the publication of private sexual images or films showing a particular person on the internet by a former partner of that person, as an attempt to punish or harm them. Revenge porn is a practice of non-consensual pornography that gained international attention in the year 2010 with the launch of the Is Anyone Up, a website designed to allow users to upload nude photographs. The website was then subsequently taken down in 2012. Though many of the uploaded photographs were self-submitted, a large portion of it was uploaded by avenging ex-lovers, and it amounted to ‘revenge porn’. Compounding the said issue was the element of linking these explicit images to the social media profiles of the person in the image to further cause damage.
The essential elements of revenge porn are that the offender and has previously shared an intimate relationship with the victim, and deliberately uploads sexually explicit content online to cause misery and damage to the victim’s character.
In March of 2018, a man in West Bengal was penalised with five years imprisonment along with a fine of Rs. 9,000 for publicising private pictures and videos of a woman without her consent as a means of revenge because she ended up her relationship with him. The accused pressured the victim into providing explicit images of herself under the promise of marriage and leveraged his intimidation’s to update these pictures onto social media to obtain more pictures. The accused then retrieved her phone without her knowledge to seek more pictures and videos. When the victim refused to continue their relationship, the accused uploaded this material onto a popular pornographic website using not only her but also her father’s names.
Indian Laws Dealing With ‘Revenge Porn’
A. Indian Penal Code, 1860
- Section 354A: Sexual harassment of the nature of unwelcome physical contact and advances or a demand or request for sexual favours or showing pornography.
- Section 354C: Punishment for a man who watches, or captures the image of a woman engaging in a private act.
- Section 354: Using criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty
- Section 506: criminal intimidation.
- Section 120B: criminal conspiracy.
- Section 509: using word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.
- Section 406: criminal breach of trust by misusing my daughter’s pictures.
- Section 354: assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty.
B. Information Technology Act, 2000
- Section 66E: violation of privacy.
- Section 67: publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.
- Section 67A: publishing or transmitting of material containing sexual act, etc. in electronic form.
Conclusion:
In cases of revenge porn, the perpetrators take advantage of the fact that women refrain from initiating a legal action fearing social stigma. However, legal action is a must as not doing so leads to strengthening the criminal tendencies of the perpetrators. As soon as you find someone blackmailing or threatening you using any such tactic, report to the police station before any graver action is done by the perpetrator.
