New Penal Code criminalizes cyberbullying with sentences of up to five years in prison

Santo Domingo.– Cyberbullying or digital harassment is among the main novelties incorporated into the new Penal Code of the Dominican Republic, by establishing for the first time a specific criminal offense to sanction harassment committed through digital platforms, social networks, and other electronic media. The provision is part of the modifications introduced through Law No. 44-26 to Law No. 74-25, which institutes the new Penal Code.

Sanctioned cyberbullying

Legislation defines cyberbullying or harassment as the conduct of anyone who, through any digital or electronic platform, shares information, publishes content, or issues messages or communications of a threatening, obscene, insulting, dishonorable, or intimidating nature with the purpose of humiliating, degrading, intimidating, isolating, or undermining the dignity, moral integrity, or normal personal development of the victim.

For this crime, the new Penal Code establishes a penalty of two to five years of minor imprisonment, in addition to a fine of nine to fifteen minimum wages of the public sector.

Cyberbullying and exceptions

The Code also delimits the scope of this criminal figure by specifying that the dissemination of information, opinions, investigations, critiques, reports, or satires carried out by journalists, media outlets, communicators, or citizens in the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression, the right to information, or social and political scrutiny regarding matters of public interest or related to State officials shall not constitute cyberbullying, provided that the content is based on true and verifiable facts.

The incorporation of this crime responds to the purpose of the new Penal Code to update Dominican legislation in the face of new forms of criminality derived from the use of technologies and digital platforms, strengthening the protection of the dignity and integrity of individuals in the virtual environment. The law itself recognizes the need to adapt the penal system to criminal behaviors that have emerged with technological and social changes.

In the official guide “Criminal Code explained for everyone”, cyberbullying appears among the new criminal categories related to protection in the digital environment. The document describes it as repeated harassment, insults, or threats through digital platforms, and exemplifies this behavior with the constant sending of offensive messages. Furthermore, it highlights that the new Code incorporates criminal responses to phenomena such as identity theft, the dissemination of private content, and other forms of digital violence.