An Overview of the Cyber Crime Volunteers Program

In February 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs introduced the Cyber Crime Volunteers Program under the patronage of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). The main objective of the program is to tackle the growing problem of cybercrime more effectively.

• The program encourages the participation of the citizens in the fight against cybercrime.
• The citizens can register themselves on the cybercrime volunteers program portal and report any unlawful content on the internet.
• The registered volunteers can assist the law enforcement agencies in identifying, reporting, and removing illegal or unlawful content online.
• The program defines unlawful content as any content that falls under various categories such as content against the sovereignty and integrity of India, content against the defence of India, content against the security of the state, etc.
• There are two options for reporting cybercrimes on the portal: report crime related to women/children and report other cybercrimes.
• If a citizen provides false information, they can be charged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
• The program aims to enlist about 500 citizens to participate in the voluntary cybercrime-fighting program.
• Any citizen can register himself/herself under one of three categories: ‘Cyber Volunteer Unlawful Content Flagger’, ‘Cyber Awareness Promoter’, and ‘Cyber Expert’.

Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)

The I4C is a nodal agency established by the Ministry of Home Affairs to combat cybercrime. The I4C aims to provide a platform to address cybercrimes in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. It aims to create an ecosystem that encourages collaboration among academia, industry, public and government in the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes.

Concerns Related to the Cyber Crime Volunteers Program

Despite its noble intentions, the program has attracted some criticism from experts. Here are some of the concerns that have been raised:

• There is no prior verification for volunteers who want to sign up under the first category, whereas some form of authentication is required for the other two categories.
• The categories under which content can be labelled ‘unlawful’ seem vague and open to interpretation, which could potentially lead to misuse of the portal.
• There is a risk of the program leading to online vigilantism and citizens spying on each other.
• There is a potential risk of the program leading to a surveillance state.
• The program could potentially curtail freedom of speech and expression on social media platforms.