Legislative Confrontation of Cyberbullying in Jordanian Law

Mohamad Alshible1

Abstract
Cyberbullying has become increasingly common in recent years, especially through social media. It inflicts danger on individuals and groups by harassing them via digital technology. This fact necessitates addressing this crime by criminalising its perpetrators through the establishment of appropriate legislative texts. Unfortunately, the Jordanian legislature did not treat bullying as a separate offence. However, some provisions of other bullying-related crimes may be used to combat this crime effectively. Therefore, this manuscript conducted an analysis of the Jordanian legal texts applicable to various forms of cyberbullying, specifically the crimes of electronic defamation (cyber-libel) and slander, the crime of violating the sanctity of private life, and the crime of cyber extortion. The article also described this crime in terms of its
concept, elements, types, and penalties. So the main result of this research is that the
crime of cyberbullying may be convicted under the mentioned crimes, but this possibility doesn’t negate the need for texts specific to this crime. Therefore, the study suggests the need to reconsider the punitive laws related to the crime of bullying, both traditional and electronic, and to develop special texts that punish it.

Keywords: Cybercrimes, cyberbullying, Defamation (cyber-libel) and slander, violation of the sanctity of private life, cyber extortion.