TMC Leader Derek O’Brien Moves Bill To Criminalise Violent Behaviour, Abusive Acts Against Women Online

While presenting the bill, O’Brien has proposed making online threats against women “cognizable and non-bailable offences”, with minimum penalties of up to three years in jail and/or a Rs 50,000 fine.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the TMC leader wrote, “Introduced 3 Private Member’s Bills in Parliament. One amends the Information Technology Act to penalise threats of physical, sexual & emotional violence based on religion, caste or sexuality against women online. (The Bill seeks to protect women subjected to threats online).”

“The bill proposes to criminalise acts that are committed against any woman “with the intention to intimidate or discredit her or force her to express a certain view, opinion or observation, or to force her to state any view, opinion or observation or to force her to refrain from expressing a certain view, opinion or observation”, the TMC MP said.

The bill presented by the TMC leader seeks to empower victims of online threats to approach a jurisdictional magistrate within a day to get an injunction against the accused or any other person, company, organization, or entity to have the offensive content deleted and to prevent its storage, retransmission, and repetition.

These acts include threats of physical violence, sexual assault, doxxing; spreading false information, false prosecution, and abuse based on religion, caste or sexuality.