Understanding and Safeguarding Against Online Trolling

Trolling involves posting inflammatory, abusive, controversial, offensive, or irrelevant messages designed to provoke emotional responses or start heated arguments. The individual who initiates trolling often finds satisfaction in watching the ensuing chaos and frustrated reactions.

Warning Signs of Trolling

• Inflammatory Posts: Messages designed to provoke anger or upset.
• Derogatory Posts: Targeting specific individuals, groups, or subjects.
• Controversial Topics: Posts on hot-button issues intended to incite anger and reactions.

Safeguarding Yourself Against Online Trolling

Trolling can be cruel and harmful, potentially leading to serious issues like depression, self-harm, or suicide. Here are some measures to protect yourself:

1. Stay Calm: Do not react emotionally. Ban or block the troll instead.
2. Thoughtful Responses: If you choose to respond, do so with humor or kindness, and include relevant facts.
3. Reinforce No-Troll Policy: Promote a friendly, troll-free environment in your online groups.
4. Report the Troll: Use the social media platform’s help center to file a complaint.
5. Identify and Block: Trolls often have telltale signs like poor grammar, exaggeration, personal attacks, and a sense of entitlement.
6. Privacy Settings: Share videos privately and restrict your privacy settings to friends only.

Actions to Take if Affected by Trolling

• Register a Complaint: Visit your nearest cyber crime police station.
• Online Complaint: You can also file an anonymous complaint at cybercrime.gov.in.

Important Tips

• Save Evidence: Take screenshots of online incidents and note the suspect’s details.
• Refer to Official Resources: Use information from cybercrime.gov.in to understand the evidence required for different cyber crimes.

Documents Needed for Filing Complaints

For social media-related complaints, ensure you have:

• Copies/screenshots of the alleged content, pictures, comments, messages, and profiles.
• Screenshot copies of the URL of the alleged content.
• Content in both hard and soft forms (soft copy in CD-R only).
• Copies/screenshots of complaints filed with the social media help center.

Legal Aspects of Trolling

While there are no specific laws against trolling in India due to freedom of speech considerations, several legal provisions can address the issue:

• Defamation (Section 499 IPC): Posting obscene images, videos, or remarks on social media can lead to imprisonment for up to 2 years for defaming a woman.
• Sexually Explicit Content (IT Act): Publishing or transmitting sexually explicit content electronically can result in 5-7 years in jail and a fine of ₹10 lakh.
• Criminal Intimidation (Sections 503 and 507 IPC): Threatening to harm a woman’s reputation or threatening anonymously can lead to conviction.