The Laws within Cybercrimes (Cyberbullying)
This will be my only point of view and understanding of the topic. It may not be accurate, but I will keep on learning it.
Cyberbullying is the act of bullying/harassment made through online communication / social media platforms with the goal of scaring, angering, slandering or shaming victims. However netizens are too immersed being keyboard warriors, involving themselves in such crime that causes the victims to fall in depression, lost of jobs, business, and even suicides.
Being an avid social media user, I have seen and witness myself bullying amongst the users. Though I do curate my social media followings and topics, cyber bullying still happens. The victims? one of example is my own Idols and their fans. Being an idol will always have haters, and this is where the trolls (antis) use all their power to bring the very people down, just because they hated, jealous of them. Once my Idol is having a tour in one of a country. And haters circulated around with hashtags that meant to harm them physically. Slandering them in so many ways, they had to cancel the concert for safety reason.
But being a worldwide famous idol, they already have a strong legal team that works with them in managing these trolls. Many of them was able to be tracked, investigated and was filled with lawsuit. Unfortunately, they could only reach certain countries to be sued, and this is where the question of how far is the Cyber Law can be effective?. And what about those normal citizens? especially teenagers. There are countless cases of suicide due to depression of Cyberbullying and some are still in the midst of investigation.
However, every country in the world have varied Laws for cybercrimes. Here is an article by Anany Sharma https://wizardingcodes.medium.com/cyber-laws-in-different-countries-505524434229. stated the list of Cyber Laws according to different countries. Some countries have laws covering certain crimes while some don’t, and some have very heavy punishments and some are quite lenient.
In some countries, they are still in the process of draft legislation for Cyberbullying. Among the 17 Asian countries analyzed:
3 countries (Japan, Philippines, and Republic of Korea) have domestic laws regarding cyberbullying;1 country (Singapore) is
considered to have legislation concerning cyberbullying although Singaporean law does not use the explicit terms of “cyberbullying” or “bullying”; and 13 countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea, India, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam) do not have domestic laws concerning cyberbullying [Putra, Eka Nugraha. Urgency Of Regulating Cyberbullying On Indonesian Law].
Currently in Malaysia, there is no legal definition of Cyberbullying. Thus relying solely on Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588) in dealing with cyber-related cases (The Star, https://www.thestar.com.my/metro/metro-news/2023/07/01/cyberbullying-laws-need-more-bite ). There has been many effort made by the government, in all over the world to curb this Cyberbullying issues. Yet it still seems lacking. To add, most of these Cyberbullying that occurred mostly through social media platforms, are operated globally, that their standard in values and laws differs, making it as one of the major set backs for Cyber Law efficiency. And to add the challenges especially for policymakers, other than the constant developed technologies, speed of information sharing, lack of security on platforms, and, jurisdiction barriers/limitations, it is also the effort in keeping the balance of these protections (Cyber Law) with the country’s freedom of speech.