Eygpt
In the middle of 2018, a love story began between a sixteen-year-old girl whose name is Sarah (a pseudonym) and a young man, who is three years older than her, in the city of Benha to the north of the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Their relationship started through chat programs and phone calls and developed into meeting and exchanging private photos after he promised to ask for her family’s approval to marry her. After months, all these promises disappeared when he asked her to start an intimate relationship with him. When she refused, he threatened to force her to acquiesce to his requests; otherwise, he would send her photos and recordings of phone conversations to her family. He said, “I will send your photos and words to your family, and they will know how to deal with you.” Sarah says, “Suddenly, the issue got bigger, and every day a group of his friends would contact me through Facebook to threaten me, or they would call me on my phone. I became paranoid every time I hear the sound of my mother’s phone, thinking that one of the blackmailers sent her something.”
Sarah was not able to tell her family about her problem for fear of their reaction, also she chose not to go to the police station to report her blackmailers, as did not know how to deal with blackmail issues and this has impacted her social and educational life severely. She became afraid of dealing with people, and she was not able to attain the average targeted in her high school courses. Even though she went to college and her life changed completely, her blackmailing (ex) boyfriend and his friends still chased her everywhere she went, and they have even levelled insult at her every time she crossed them on the street. She says this has made her consider committing suicide to escape everything.
Sarah is one of hundreds of girls who experience electronic blackmail in Egypt through social media sites. A questionnaire was prepared and shared over a period of two weeks to monitor the various methods of blackmail experienced by girls. 37 Egyptian girls contacted initially through Facebook and WhatsApp responded to the questionnaire forwarded to them through groups that include women who had experienced electronic blackmail. A large number of them refused to discuss any of their personal experiences for fear of social stigmatization. The questionnaire revealed however, that around 25 of them started experiencing blackmail through social networking sites; and seven respondents experienced blackmail through the instant messaging application of WhatsApp; while only five respondents experienced this through phone calls. Lawyer Jamal Mahmoud says that blackmailers begin this immoral practice after obtaining photos or the personal data of a person or a company. He says that the most common problem is blackmail through personal photos and private conversations obtained by hacking social media accounts. Sometimes, blackmail happens because the female sends her photos to an unreliable person to be introduced to someone for dating purposes. He asserted that victims in this category are mostly teenagers. According to various victims’ testimonies, blackmailers usually use different methods of entrapment. Thirty-seven victims of extortion responded to the questionnaire, and the results show that 19 out of 37 girls were threatened through photos, videos and genuine personal information the blackmailers had on them, and thirteen girls answered that the perpetrators used fabricated photos against them for extortion purposes. Twenty of the victims answered that they had known the person at some point in their life, and that is how the blackmailer accessed their personal data and photos. Eleven of the victims answered that their personal data and photos were leaked to the blackmailers through hacked phones or social media accounts, and five had their photos taken without their knowledge. One girl answered that personal data and photos were leaked through a mobile phone provider’s employees.
Appeals lawyer Jamal Mahmoud defines electronic blackmail as an electronic crime in which a person saves the electronic files of another person for the purpose of receiving a financial return or to force the victim to perform an immoral act. Electronic blackmail may target a person, a group or a company, but this term has been associated with individuals since it is described as ‘ransomware’ in cases related to companies.
Mahmoud believes that society’s poor legal awareness of the laws related to blackmail is what exacerbates the problem of electronic extortion. Moreover, the fear factor also contributes to the continued spread of this phenomenon in Egyptian society. According to the Penal Code in Egypt, the penalty for blackmail in Article (327) states that, “Anyone who threatens to commit a crime against another person or demands his money in writing shall be punished by death penalty, or receive a life or limited sentence with hard labour. If the person threatens to reveal secrets or offend honour through slander, he shall be punished by imprisonment, and the sentence could be reduced to incarceration if financial demands were not associated with the threat.”
Most of the victims we interviewed were not aware of the Egyptian Penal Code, nor were they familiar with the special articles of the law related to blackmail crimes. Some victims know that there are legal ways to report blackmail incidents to the police Internet Crimes Department, but mostly they chose to deal with the blackmailers personally or through intermediaries to limit the spread of the story as crimes of this nature have a scandalous dimension in Egyptian customs and traditions settings.
Twenty-six out of thirty-seven victims who took part in our questionnaire have indicated that their problem or incident has been resolved amicably with the blackmailer without further damages. Nine victims said that they are still suffering from a blackmail case, while two victims said that the issue was resolved when the security services intervened and had managed to arrest the blackmailer.
Doctor Eman Abdullah, a consultant psychiatrist and family doctor, believes that “electronic blackmail is considered a crime against any person forced to perform a specific act against his or her will,” noting that some blackmailers often do not realize that their act qualifies as a “crime”; and that they will be legally held accountable. She stresses that the victim who experiences blackmail must not submit to the blackmailer or do what is demanded of her, rather, she should resort to the police’s Internet Crimes Department or seek the help of a lawyer to follow up on the case and expedite the process of securing her social media account through some available applications.
Article (25) of the Information Technology Crime Law states that, “Anyone who commits any violations of any family principles or values of Egyptian society; violations of the sanctity of private life; sending many electronic messages to someone without their consent; or providing personal data to a regime or website to promote goods or services without the person in question’s consent, shall be punished by imprisonment for at least six months and would be penalised by paying a fine that ranges between 50,000 and 100,000 Egyptian pounds.”
Recently, electronic initiatives introduced by a group of young people have emerged to assist victims of electronic blackmail and harassment. The questionnaire showed that “Qawim” initiative, or resist in Arabic, has been playing a major role in mediating between the victims and the blackmailers to resolve most electronic blackmail incidents. A large number of victims who answered our survey said that they had resorted to these platforms, while twelve of those who answered the questionnaire have said that they have reported the incidents to the cyber crime police department. Ten girls dealt with the blackmailers personally or through their families.
Mahmoud Al-Yamani who founded “Qawim” initiative explained that it has become one of the biggest and most famous online platforms on social media dealing with electronic blackmail issues in Egypt. Al-Yamani says, when “Qawim” or resist initiative appeared, many victims used it as a refuge to alleviate their fears and to try to stop the blackmail stream they were experiencing as the initiative receives more than 500 messages per day from victims of electronic blackmail.” Al-Yamani asserts that a team consisting of females mainly, receives complaints and prioritises the best way to deal with them in order to reach a solution through finding the appropriate mechanisms suitable for each victim to remedy their problem, helping them all the way to its resolution.”
The initiative follows several methods to solve the cases. One of these methods is to establish direct contact with the blackmailer to end the incident amicably and to persuade the victim’s family of the need to help protect her and to open a space for dialogue between her and her family. Al-Yamani says, “The legal route could be adopted from the beginning with some types of blackmailers. The role of “Qawim” or resist is not limited to helping victims of electronic blackmail and harassment as the initiative plays a role in educating individuals about their legal rights, and in encouraging them to confront those who try to blackmail them without fearing the related social stigma.
Al-Yamani, adds that “Qawim” often takes the legal route whether the blackmailer is contacted to end the crisis amicably or not, in order to guarantee the victim’s right. He stresses that around 70% of the perpetrators are ignorant of the penalty for the crimes they are committing.
Psychiatry and family medicine consultant, Doctor Eman Abdullah thinks that the victim tends often to believe the person with whom she has started a relationship with, and considers them reliable and friends. The individual does not necessarily have to be of the same sex, as the relationship may be between two males or two females, so she exchanges pictures and information about her life. Abdullah advises that “Everyone should be watchful of questions that invade privacy and of publishing personal information in private and public spaces. What you do not wish to share publicly, do not send to anyone privately.”
Doctor Abdullah explained that the rise in the number of electronic blackmail victims is due to the lack of awareness and education. She said, “Relationships and friendships in the virtual world are unreliable as they are not comprehensive, and are relationships with vague and imaginary persons.” In addition to seeking psychological and social support when needed, she advises blackmail victims to get closer to their family members and genuine friends who could provide invaluable advice and guidance.
This is confirmed by lawyer Jamal Mahmoud who says, “One should not negotiate with a blackmailer or give him money because that may encourage him to continue asking for more. Blackmail victims must go to the police’s Internet Crimes Investigation Department and file a report about the incident.”
The phenomenon of electronic extortion has changed from crimes committed by individuals to crimes committed by groups to form part of organized crimes. These groups blackmail people of both sexes for the purpose of sexual relations or for material gain. Al-Yamani says, “Some people depend on blackmail for material gain or to consume some sexual relationships with people, and this is especially done by gangs, swindlers, and gangs that work in the traffic of nudity contents. They have spread at a scary rate as they are well managed and supported financially by the criminal entity. This is why such cases should be handled by specialised security units.”
Recently, there has been a popular demand to amend the Egyptian Penal Code, especially the articles related to the privacy of individuals in order to limit electronic blackmail crimes. Member of the Egyptian House of Representatives and the Human Rights Committee Doctor Amal Salamah says, “I demanded that the punishment be aggravated for those who blackmail any citizen, hack his private life on websites or put their pictures in the wrong places. I also demanded that Articles (25) and (26) be amended so that the penalty becomes imprisonment for a term of no less than five years and not more than seven years with a fine of at least 200,000 Egyptian pounds. God willing, this will be included in the new legislation when the quorum for voting on the amendment is completed.”
For Sarah, the blackmail scenario is still repeated every day even after five years now, and this makes her live in fear and anxiety. The issue did not stop at being blackmailed by the person she once loved, but people like his friends started threatening her when he shared her private photos with them, and this left her as a target for mass blackmail.
The questionnaire also revealed that fifteen blackmailers aimed to corner their victims to start intimate relationships with them; sixteen sought vengeance from the victims; and six aimed to gain material gain and asked the victims for money or personal items.
The questionnaire showed that most of the blackmailers were in the 25 to 40 age group, while thirteen girls answered that the age of the blackmailer was between 16 and 25, and seven blackmail victims answered that they did not know the age of their blackmailers.
