A Dialogue with Gary Dyer: Shaping Laws Against Cyberbullying

Written By Sonia Lim

Introduction

The aim of this interview/article piece is to raise awareness about cyberbullying and promote meaningful discussions with experts, regarding ways to tackle the issue, which is an increasingly common type of cybercrime in recent years. The expert today is Gary Dyer, former cyber law enforcement, with a specialty in cybercrime investigation and is currently an executive board member of International Cybersecurity and investigations Committee ( ICSIC ). The discussion begins with the definition of cyberbullying and existing laws targeting this issue, followed by an in-depth outlook into a specific case of cyberbullying, and a conclusion regarding effective strategies to prevent the issue.

Cyberbullying: Legal Definition

Sonia: There is still not one agreed legal definition of cyberbullying. In general, cyberbullying refers to bullying that occurs on a variety of technological platforms such as social media, applications, gaming and/or public forums. It involves activities such as sending, posting and sharing of negative, false, or harmful content about a person. Some jurisdictions define cyberbullying as an activity that involves the repeated use of communication technologies to perform hostile acts that intend to harm individuals, while others do not require ‘abuse’ to be defined as such. Why do you think there is still no agreed definition of cyberbullying today?

Gary: Cyber bullying exists in many forms and levels and many cases will be labeled as non serious 'online arguments' with little or no evidence of harm being shown. I have always followed the Budapest convention on cybercrime, the global treaty that exists with a common vision for trying to facilitate international cooperation on cybercrime that also aims to protect the rule of law and an open internet. This treaty has had recent updates to include cloud data crime. Updates to the Budapest Cybercrime Convention:An additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime, concerning the criminalization of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems (ETS No. 189) was implemented in 2019. Due to the increase in cybercrimes covering many areas, help is needed.The International Cyber Security and Investigation Committee (ICSIC) will be offering to assist in the formation of an International Cybercrime Judiciary.

Sonia: What are your thoughts on how cyberbullying is being defined these days: should cyberbullying always include abusive content to be defined as such?

Gary: Cross border prosecution is still tricky and subject to cooperation. However, abusive content can cause great psychological stress leading to self harm, loss of income due to job loss, and even cases of suicide/attempted suicide.Prosecution of cybercrime relies on evidence of harassment, abuse or defamation just like a physical abuse case.My past and recent cybercrime cases were successful in taking action against the perpetrator due to the evidence presented and the fact that the victim showed evidence of months or years of psychological abuse in doctors reports to back up the online evidence found during investigation. We had a case in which a victim was targeted with online harassment, defamation and abuse by more than one person resulting in the case being classified as organized crime. The criminals were also charged with publicizing online photos of the victim without consent, a violation of the laws.

Current Laws against Cyberbullying

Sonia: Cyberbullying can lead to many negative outcomes for the victim(s). Some of these damages include mental health problems, loss of self-esteem, loss of employment, loss of friends and family, and even loss of life in extreme cases. Yet, there is still no one legislation that specifically tackles cyberbullying in many jurisdictions. In Hong Kong, for example, there is no law on cyberbullying although there are existing laws that come from civil and/or criminal law, and deal with these issues: If the bullying escalates to transmission of threats to an individual, it could breach s24 and s161 of the Crimes Ordinance, due to intimidation and dishonest intention involved when accessing computers to perpetrate the crime. In Canada, there is no federal law on cyberbullying. Rather, the civil law code on defamation and harassment may be applicable depending on the specific details of a given incident: those responsible for harassment and defamation of an individual are liable up to 10 years and 5 years of imprisonment. What are your thoughts on this: do you think that the provisions in the existing criminal and civil code are sufficient when tackling cyberbullying? Is a specific legislation necessary to combat cyberbullying? ( There is heated debate regarding this topic and little progress has been made in the last decade ).

Gary: The Hague in the Nederland’s are still discussing the implementations of an international cybercrime judiciary, while updates to the Budapest convention implemented in 2019 were not sufficient as discussed in the first question.

A Cyberbullying Case in the US: Principles of cyberspace

Sonia: A cyberbullying case happened in the US where Adria Richards, a software programmer attended a tech conference called Pycon in 2013. While she was delivering her presentation, some male professionals from the field seated near her started making sexist jokes targeted towards her. Adria then responded by taking a photo of them and tweeting about their inappropriate actions. Within a short period of time, one of the male professionals included in the photo was fired from his job. Adria was also targeted later on, when a group of hackers leaked her private information and sent death threats. After her data was exposed, Adria was also fired from her company. In this case, both Adria and the male professionals lost their jobs. What is the best solution or approach for Adria and male professionals to fight cyberbullying so that these incidents are prevented in the future?

Gary: In this case, Adria tweeted a photo of two people without their consent, therefore committing a possible cybercrime against the privacy law. The law can go both ways.

Combating Cyberbullying

Sonia: Cyberbullying cases have been on the rise over the last few years. In Hong Kong, for instance, the Education Bureau has reported a significant increase in these incidents: in 2017, 54 cases were reported, which doubled in 2021, to 105 cases. The Hong Kong SAR government has undertaken various initiatives to combat cyberbullying, taking on a zero-tolerance approach that required schools to implement anti-bullying strategies and policies, reporting channels, monitoring mechanisms and training programs for teachers to name a few. Why do you think cyberbullying is on the rise in recent years? Are there more effective strategies and approaches to deal with cyberbullying? In your opinion, what type of programs do governments need to implement to solve this issue in high schools?

Gary: Cyber bullying has been on the rise in recent years due to Covid19 lockdown and more people than ever are working from home and spending more time online.So what can be done about it: Not everyone has a doctor's report on their psychological condition, so it is up to family, friends and colleagues to pay attention and help to spot online abuse and capture screen shots of abusive or defamatory content. Private legal action can be taken against offending parties.While you are scrolling through the online junk on social media, stop and direct your attention to those people around you, be aware of unusual behavior. Everyone can make a difference to the internet, if you see something or someone suspicious, fake, and inappropriate or offensive, click the corner dots of the profile and report it to the social media admin, you may be preventing a future cybercrime and saving a victim. You could even save a life!

Conclusion

Sonia: Thank you Gary, for your time and thoughts about cyberbullying today. As discussed, there still is a lot that needs to be done. With vague and varied legal definitions of cyberbullying, and countries still working on differing approaches towards it, we hope countries can soon come up with a concerted effort to effectively deal with this issue and drastically reduce the volume of these cases that have been increasing over the last decade. If you’d also like to contribute to the discussion and/or have any questions please email me at truandjust2011@gmail.com