Kathmandu, Nepal’s Cyber Bureau has formed a 10-member team to investigate social media users accused of posting abusive and hateful comments targeting people affected by last month’s devastating flash floods, according to a media report.
The move came after Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Saturday warned that those mocking or harassing people suffering in the aftermath of the disaster would face action.
Nepal’s August 26 disaster was triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the border with Tibet, sending a massive surge of water and debris downstream through the Bhotekoshi River, leaving hundreds dead, thousands missing and devastating settlements in northern and central regions of the Himalayan nation.
Families searching for relatives who went missing in the flash floods had turned to social media to seek help, but some of their appeals were met with hostile and demeaning comments, The Kathmandu Post newspaper reported on Monday.
The Cyber Bureau is compiling profiles of users who posted such comments and is working to identify their addresses and telephone numbers, even though no formal complaints have been filed by those targeted, the report said.
“A 10-member team is working on this,” Cyber Bureau spokesperson Dilip Kumar Giri was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “Such behaviour, which causes further distress to flood survivors, must be discouraged. Those responsible will face action.”
Shah, in a Facebook post on Saturday, said those who “belittle those in pain or seek to cause them further suffering at this sensitive time are criminals” and warned that the government would show “no leniency towards them”.
The online abuse continued despite the warning, with a video posted on Sunday showing a woman holding a young child and appealing for help to locate her husband and other relatives, drawing mocking and insulting comments, The Kathmandu Post reported.
The Cyber Bureau arrested a man in Kathmandu over comments it said could inflame ethnic tensions in connection with the disaster, the report added.
Birendra Madai of Baitadi was arrested on Saturday after posting comments about the ethnic identity of people affected by the floods, it said.
Giri said police could initiate an investigation even without a formal complaint if sufficient evidence was gathered.
“Police can collect evidence, investigate such comments and move forward with legal action even when nobody has filed a complaint,” he said.
Nepal’s Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 provides for fines and imprisonment for certain forms of online abuse. Section 47 prohibits the publication or display through electronic media of material that promotes hatred or hostility, disrupts relations between ethnic or religious communities, or involves harassment, humiliation or other indecent conduct.
Those convicted can face a fine of up to NRs 100,000 or imprisonment of up to five years, or both, with repeat offenders liable to harsher punishment.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
