 We are now going to look at cyber incivility. Now while in our day to day lives in our actual societies, being civil is a very important human trait. In fact, I would go as far as to say that being civil is a trait which actually distinguishes them or sets it apart from the animal world. Humans are civil and that is why we say that as mankind has involved, the evolution actually meant that our societies became more and more civilized. Similarly, as a virtual variant of our actual societies are cyber societies and humans tend to exhibit certain kind of unique behaviors in those cyber societies, it is very important to have civil behavior in the cyber world also and actively discourage and prevent any kind of cyber incivility. Cyber incivility can be defined as any behavior that violates social norms, ethics or legal principles in the online environment. Cyber incivility can occur on various platforms including social media, online forums, messaging apps, the comments sections even through emails and personal messages. Cyber incivility can cause harm to individuals including emotional distress, reputational damage, psychological impact and when cyber incivility causes several harms to individuals, as a whole it causes several harms to organizations. Now let's look at examples of certain behaviors or certain attitudes which qualify as cyber incivility. Cyber bullying for instance is one major example of an uncivil behavior which we can exhibit in the cyber domain. Cyber bullying includes any kind of speech or any kind of text or any kind of audio or video which can be threatening to an individual or which can cause any kind of fear or intimidation to a certain individual. It can include any kinds of negative comments or an aggressive behavior, even a passive aggressive behavior towards someone's appearance, their life choices, their ethnicity, their sexual orientation and their day to day actions at all. So cyber bullying in general is an uncivil behavior if it is done in the actual physical word and therefore cyber bullying is one of the prime examples of a civil incivility. Then trolling, now what is trolling? Trolling is that let's say if somebody has posted a certain message or expressed a certain opinion in the online world you know that person is as a result of that message or as a result of that post is made fun of or made accountable for what they have said or is threatened as a result of what they have said that is trolling. And if we carry out trolling it is again pretty much like cyber bullying and trolling and two can at times you know be a kind of cyber bullying both cyber bullying and trolling are some very obvious examples of cyber incivility. Thirdly an example of cyber incivility is hate speech. Now what is hate speech? Hate speech is that let's say you know saying derogatory or negative or rude things against a certain gender or a certain religion or a certain race or certain personal characteristics or a certain organization or a certain country or a certain individual or a certain group. Hate speech is something that can promote or encourage discrimination it can promote or encourage intolerance and at times violence you know and now as this hate speech is absolutely unacceptable in our day to day lives because it can have very very detrimental consequences you know it can hate speech has the potential of you know turning a mob violent you know of making certain individuals attack certain other individuals. So as hate speech can be very very dangerous in our day to day lives any kind of hate speech when it is done in the cyberspace is a major example of cyber incivility. Then looking at further more examples of what can be an incivil behavior in the cyber word doxing let's say is one of them. Doxing involves publicly revealing someone's personal information such as their address, their phone number, their email anything else let's say their grades for instance or you know their health condition for that matter but it has to be done with the intention of harassing them or threatening them. So again you know the doxing comes very closely in close proximity with privacy rights how a civil behavior in a civilized society requires that we respect other people's privacy similarly in the cyber word it is imperative that a civil behavior would require that we respect other people's privacy we do not reveal their personal details which can in any form you know harm them. Lastly another example of cyber incivility can be harassment which again is an umbrella term you know which which covers doxing which cover tolling which covers stalking which covers bullying you know so any kind of repeated or unwanted online behavior which can intimidate degrade or humiliate someone else you know and it could be by it could be excessive through excessive messaging it could be through let's say an apparently benign thing such as repeatedly tagging someone in a post it could be through creating fake accounts to impersonate someone else it could be you know through as I said through explicit trolling or explicit doxing so any kind of an online harassment behavior is comes under cyber incivility. Furthermore any kind of disrespectful comments whether it is through online messages whether it is through reply of emails and you know any messages which can be insulting which can be offensive which can be rude which can in which involve name calling which involves derogatory remarks which involve a certain kind of aggression or a bullying behavior is it comes under incivilized cyber behavior they come under cyber incivility then further sexting which refers to sharing explicit images or videos you know of someone without their consent at times is a form of revenge at times is a form of inflicting humiliation also of course comes under cyber crime but at a certain level you know it is again a major form of cyber incivility. Cyber incivility as it is obvious and in civil behavior it undermines positive online interactions it undermines healthy digital communities and it undermines productive online discourse. A cyber incivility you know prevents good digital citizenship and it hinders responsible online behavior what we need to do is we need to at an individual level first implement ourselves and then preach and encourage empathy respect constructive communication as a tool for combating cyber incivility further we can adopt certain mindful habits which can prevent cyber incivility we need to adopt them first ourselves then we need to adopt them at an organization level and then you know preach and promote that these are you know implemented across at a societal level which includes number one there is a need to have respectful communication whether it is through online messages whether it is through emails there is an utmost need and there needs to be a zero tolerance policy on you know on not having an disrespectful communication all communication even if it is something there is a matter of conflict even conflict needs to be addressed through respectful communication then I think another responsibility which falls on all of us is that we it is our responsibility that we educate ourselves with regards to a proper cyber civil behavior is what is okay what is not okay so that we are ourselves unknowingly also not infringing on other people's rights and other people's boundaries and other people's privacy so it's it's up to us that we educate ourselves with regards to a proper cyber civil behavior is and then we move on and you know educate others lastly and very importantly before sending any online messages before sending any posts think before you do it think about its impact think if it is not done in a way that it is infringing on anybody's rights or if it if it falls under hate speech or if it can you know if it if it can even borderline fall under harassment or bullying so be very mindful be very careful about the messaging your messages that you're sharing about the posts that you're putting on be very careful in doing so further as a good practice foster positive online communities you know positivity only leads to more positivity you know therefore encourage constructive discussions report any abusive behavior and support all those initiatives which are promoting digital civility and respect lastly it's our responsibility to report and block if you encounter civil instability utilize reporting mechanisms available on platforms and within your organization to flag offensive content or behavior utilize blocking features to limit interactions with individuals who engage in in cyber instability and know when cyber instability enters the paradigm of a cyber crime and therefore as responsible citizens as responsible digital citizens you know it is your responsibility it is my responsibility it is our responsibility you know to take action report such behavior and and and you know block any such behavior