Ekaterina Mizulina, head of the Safe Internet League, has come up with an initiative to strengthen legislation in the field of cybersecurity, proposing to introduce punishment for cyberstalking and doxing. According to her, the current laws do not provide sufficient protection for victims of online harassment.
Cyberstalking is the systematic harassment of a person on the Internet, including threats and insults. Doxers, in turn, are engaged in finding and distributing personal data without the consent of the owner, which can lead to real threats. According to her, in the past year alone, the Safe Internet League received five appeals from families of teenagers on whose behalf doxers ran animal-killing publics.
It is very difficult to achieve justice and punish such an offender under the current Russian legislation, within the framework of the inertia of indifference - both from law enforcement agencies, which exists, and often from the judicial system. People cannot independently defend their rights, especially when it comes to young girls, many of whom become victims of this kind of stalkers: a young man didn’t like it, she didn’t want to continue communicating with him, and he can walk around for years, write comments on social networks or stand guard near the entrance, near the dormitory.
In one case, the family had to change their place of residence, transfer the child to another school, change phone numbers and other personal data to protect the victim from the “popular anger” and the desire to “punish” for animal abuse. She also mentioned the need to combat swatting — false reports of threats that can lead to real consequences.
A number of countries already have strict laws against cyberstalking and doxing. In Russia, such measures are only being discussed so far.
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