Nepal moves against online abuse targeting flood survivors

Nepal’s Cyber Bureau has formed a 10-member team to track people accused of mocking and abusing survivors of last month’s Bhotekoshi river floods. The investigation began after Prime Minister Balendra Shah warned that the government would take a hard line against online harassment.

The bureau said it was compiling profiles of users who posted insensitive comments, even though no formal complaints had been filed by those targeted. Families searching for relatives missing since the Aug. 26 floods had turned to social media for help. Their appeals drew hostile and degrading responses, prompting others to alert the government and security agencies.

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People who make unnecessary remarks, belittle those in pain or seek to cause them further suffering at this sensitive time are criminals. The government will show no leniency towards them.

“People who make unnecessary remarks, belittle those in pain or seek to cause them further suffering at this sensitive time are criminals,” Shah wrote on Facebook. “The government will show no leniency towards them.”

Superintendent of Police Dilip Kumar Giri, the bureau’s spokesperson, said officers were reviewing the profiles of users who posted abusive comments and working to identify their addresses and telephone numbers. “A 10-member team is working on this,” he said. “Such behaviour, which causes further distress to flood survivors, must be discouraged. Those responsible will face action.”

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A 10-member team is working on this. Such behaviour, which causes further distress to flood survivors, must be discouraged. Those responsible will face action.

The abuse continued after Shah’s warning. A video showed a woman holding a young child and asking for help finding her husband and other relatives. She also appealed for a secure future for herself and her two children, but commenters mocked and insulted her.

Section 47 of Nepal’s Electronic Transactions Act prohibits electronic material that promotes hatred or hostility, disrupts relations between ethnic or religious communities, or involves harassment, humiliation or indecent conduct. Convictions can bring fines of up to Rs100,000, prison terms of up to five years, or both. Sociologist Meena Poudel said the abuse reflected a wider tendency among people close to power to attack critics and vulnerable groups, including women, Madhesi people and residents of remote areas.

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There is a tendency among people close to power to look down on and attack others, particularly women, Madhesi people and those from remote areas who are already in difficult circumstances. Those who feel close to power develop the illusion that they are entitled to act with impunity.