Digital Misogyny: The Rise of Online Harassment Against Women

Digital Misogyny: The Rise of Online Harassment Against Women

The other day, a female best friend shared this with me. One weekend, while scrolling Instagram, she received a ‘hi’ text from an unknown Instagram user. A video link was attached to it. It was a girl’s indulgence in obscene activities with a man in the video. Upon looking closely, she noticed that the face of the girl in the video resembled hers. As soon as she was about to block the user, she received the same video over her WhatsApp as well, from another number this time. She now got a call saying this is the Police Head from so & so state & she was under ‘digital arrest’ under an extensive adult scandal. Your local police will be informed, & they will be there to get hold of her any minute. She panicked due to the resemblance in the facial expressions but knew it was a fraud caller. She fell prey to the user’s intentions & ended up paying substantial amounts of money to him online to avoid any further problems.

Naturally, she was traumatized the whole week. He not only extorted money but also talked indecently so that she gets baffled & gives him the money in return to not spread the video over the internet. In the hope that the video wouldn’t go viral, she sent him the money to be safe from facing shame to her & her family. This was not only money fraud but digital misogyny, too.

Understanding Digital Misogyny

According to the report of UN Women, 58% percent of girls & young women have experienced some form of online harassment. No better day to talk about women’s digital misogyny when Women’s Day is around the corner. This type of misogyny can cause a woman to distance herself from all online spaces. This impacts her basic human rights that include her right to expression, opinion & privacy.

Digital misogyny is when hatred, prejudiced opinions, disrespecting, eve teasing women is implemented online, especially by men, is known as digital misogyny. It can be initiated simply by exchanging sexist opinions, memes, stereotyping women, and sending improper images to women & may take an extremely vicious shape that leads to the mental & emotional breakdown of women. Offline misogyny is the typical disrespecting women on the streets, passing racist comments, domestic violence, rapes (marital or non-marital), torturing etc. As the word comes together via technology, misogyny should be taken as uncalled for & out of line.

Women have to face a lot of harassment daily on social media. According to Plan International, 20% of young women in the European Union (EU) have reported to face cyber sexual harassment. Several research organizations have pledged to attempt to characterize the new manifestation of misogyny. Fingers crossed! Let’s see what they have for us. Speaking of digital misogyny, let’s have a look at the types:

Stalking: This is to follow or monitor the person using electronic means.

Deepfake abuse: Creating or spreading manipulated videos of someone.

Online grooming: Making women targets for online sexual exploitation.

Vote brigading: Collective efforts to suppress women’s votes.

Doxing: Publishing personal information online to harass or target someone (women.)

How does online harassment discourage women from speaking out or participating in digital spaces?

No two ways about digital technologies having several advantages due to which brands & startups run successfully. The digital economy has given access to scroll about any news, new markets, new businesses, & start businesses. But what about the disadvantages & the dark side of it? Especially for women. Hate speeches against women, personal image abuse, & trolling have taken a vicious shape. Women get defensive when it comes to expressing themselves online. Here's how:

 A. Reach:

Hate crimes spread using digital technologies have some unique characteristics that set them apart from other forms of gender bias. The impact, speed, & scale with which it spreads causes women to suppress their right to express. It can also go international, which makes it difficult to stop. Harmful & threatening content & images are disseminated, shared & threatened to be shared by others.

B. Some stats:

A European study found that women are 27 times more likely to face online harassment than men. Another study depicted that 92% of women reported that online violence negatively affects their mental & emotional well-being. Similarly, a study on online violence against women revealed that 73% of women journalists have had online violence experiences.

C. Community harassment:

Several communities, like young women, girls, LGBTIQ+ persons, women with disabilities, and minority & migrant groups of women, are more prone to facing online forms of digital misogyny.

How Women Can Protect Themselves Online?

Avoid putting out personal information: At times, we casually share our information like address, phone number, location, & other contact information. Cybercriminals use this information to target your account & cause harm to you, leading to digital misogyny.

Have accurate privacy settings: Settings can be made about who can see your posts & information posted. All the social media accounts should be protected with strong passwords. Multi-factor authentication is an easy way to be safe & stress-free of unknown users invading your account.

Report Cyberbullying & Harassment: If cyberbullying takes place, immediately block the user & report it to the platform. It can save you & others as well from being the next target of the bully.

Report fake accounts: Social media is exploding with the number of fake accounts & bots. As per studies, Instagram has 95 million fake accounts, while Twitter removes 350 million bots annually. These accounts are used for phishing, spamming, or faking as someone else.

Conclusion

The act of digital misogyny needs to stop, it’s high time. This is for all the men who are reading this. Just imagine being humiliated by a stranger who's sitting elsewhere & spreading inappropriate images of you all over the internet. How does that make you feel? Not saying that all men do this, but for those who do & reading this article, we have a humble request to stop this hate & start supporting women. As a leading business magazine, we highly condemn such acts of hatred & digital misogyny. The world needs more love than hate!

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