CHENNAI: If you have been active on Facebook in the recent days, you could not have missed Sarahah, an anonymous messaging app that has attracted massive interest with over 10 million downloads worldwide.
While it has sparked an active dialogue about cyber bullying, how does one seek legal help against a bully whose identity is unknown? Can this app be misused by terrorists and anti-social elements?
The police’s cyber crime cell admits that there is only limited help they can offer. Sarahah lets you send messages to users anonymously, and unlike other messaging apps, the user cannot reply to the senders or find their identity. “On platforms where the phone number is not recorded, we have to track the IP address from which the user sent abuses,” said a senior official from the cyber crime cell in Chennai.
Tracking the IP address of an anonymous sender is a tedious task, as the police department would have to contact the app creator over mail requesting data. It is at the discretion of the app creator to divulge the identity. Sarahah, for instance, is an app created by a Saudi Arabian developer Zain al-Abidin Tawfiq. “We can legally place a request only if the sender uses an Indian IP address,” the official said.
This means that an abuser from abroad cannot be traced without reaching out to foreign governments.
According to Na Vijayashankar, an expert in the field of laws governing the cyber society, terrorists can use this loophole to communicate across countries and even use it for intimidation.
“Anonymity acts as booster as one has no information about the sender, unless two governments interacts,” he said, adding that it will touch sensitive lines between privacy and security.
To counter such crimes, Vijayashankar suggested the concept of “regulated anonymity” where a trusted body collates information, which can be accessed by international governments for conflict resolution. “This would help preserve the democratic principles of privacy protection in cyber space along with the need of the law enforcement mechanism to be able to prevent misuse of ‘privacy’ as a cover for cyber crimes.”
He added that unless messages on anonymous platforms such as Sarahah threaten national security, it would be unrealistic to expect law to assist victims of cyber bullying.
According to Sarahah’s website, the app is supposed to help you discover your strengths and areas for improvement by receiving honest feedback from your employees and friends privately. While many use it to confess feelings anonymously, hate messages have been rampant on the platform.
“An anonymous user called me a gold-digger on Sarahah. I work multiple jobs to pay for my needs, and always insist on paying my share when I go out. I could ignore shallow comments on my appearance, but I was shaken by people targeting my integrity,” said Rochelle Stephen, a student and a model.
People have also taken to ‘slut-shaming’ women on the platform. Targets of such hate messages have the choice of keeping the message to themselves or respond to it only by sharing it on social media platform hoping that the sender sees it.
“This also poses the risk of creation of a virtual identity. Abusers unleash their dark side under the hood of anonymity, and victims develop a wrong self image that either boosts or shames their personality,” said Vivian Kapil, a psychiatrist. He added that people who recognise themselves as vulnerable must not take to such platforms where they put themselves up for anonymous public opinion. “This contradicts the popular opinion that familiarity breed contempt,” he said.
