DCW cell to tackle harassment

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) will set up a cyber cell as part of a pilot project to conduct in-depth research pertaining to online harassment

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) will set up a cyber cell as part of a pilot project to conduct in-depth research pertaining to online harassment of women.

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The Commission will seek the cooperation of police and social networking sites for redressal of online complaints received by it, DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal said in a letter to Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi.

Maliwal congratulated Gandhi on her decision to address harassment of women and girls in cyberspace, especially on social media networking websites, saying “it is the duty of the government to ensure that women and girls are able to use the cyberspace and social network without any fear of harassment.”

“DCW is already in talks with Twitter Inc. and Facebook to explore the possibility of directly referring complaints of online harassment to them for immediate action,” Maliwal said in the letter.

The commission, she said, has already identified some potential roadblocks for there are many impediments to immediate removal of abusive content or blocking of abusive users in micro-blogging sites.