Online gender-based violence

The societal acceptance of norms that are deemed 'misogynistic' has a large impact on the prevalence of gender-based violence online. Cultural norms and beliefs are carried from physical communities into online spaces by actors who engage in this behavior in person or who already agree with misogynist ideas. People who engage in physical violence against women also are likely to engage in online forms of violence.[7] Through cultural causes, scholars claim that rather than technology creating violence online, it simply provides a new platform which users adapt to suit their desired action, some of which may include acts such as doxing, threatening, or stalking women.[8] Culture also can influence the popularity of violent activity against women when these behaviors are perpetrated or normalized by celebrities. This is also true when acts of gender violence are normalized against female celebrities and public figures.[9] These cultural causes can have large or small impacts depending on the identity of the victim or the context. For instance, acts of gender-based violence may be more common in fields such as politics where strong ideologies about women's roles and misogyny are already present. This would include cases where the victim is working in politics or the threats and violent behavior came as a response to a political post.[10]

Although cultural norms are one cause of gender violence that can attract some actors to perpetrate these behaviors, online algorithms and behavior can bring about another factor that causes violent behavior. Public comments on social media applications such as Twitter and Facebook can lead to other users agreeing with and adding their own additional comments. In cases of online harassment, these additional users' actions are caused when the original threat or internet troll comment is perceived as acceptable or when they become normalized and more common in the user's feed.[10] These threads of gendered trolling can be inflated by algorithm behaviors; in many cases online systems "boost" negative posts leading them to reach a larger audience and gain more violent responses.[11] Cases where the violence is instigated and grows because of perceptions of lawlessness as well as cases where online algorithms are responsible for the growth in harassment are both examples of how gender-based violence can be instigated online.

Some forms of gender-based violence online are caused by the availability of online spaces for communities with misogynistic and violent ideas about women. Systems which provide online formats such as Reddit or Tor can often become popular among groups with violent ideas or who would like to remain anonymous.[12] Anonymous online spaces allow subcultures like incels to grow. In many of these spaces, misogyny and rape fantasies are commonly discussed and these spaces can teach individuals that violent acts and behavior is acceptable. In some cases, incel forums have had a role in encouraging violent behavior among members.[13] The spread of violent and gendered rhetoric is not isolated to one subculture and can be normalized and taught in a variety of groups.

Structural inequalities that exist at the core of technological landscapes reproduce discriminate practices geared towards women. Women are being kept offline because of the arguably unsafe digital field that has been cultivated through misogynistic, aggressive, and threatening practices.[14] Schemas that classify women as less valuable generators of knowledge and less relevant actors in social spaces result in knowledge gaps online through the generation of feelings of unsafe spaces online for women to participate. Trends of women and individuals of low socio-economic status producing less content online poses a threat to the democratization of the internet.[15]

Despite its status as the most participatory site on the internet, Wikipedia perpetrates these inequalities and does not serve as a safe knowledge outlet for women. The exacerbation of knowledge gaps harms women by limiting their capacity to contribute to the digital world and prevents social mobility through the lack of access to information regarding female-generated information and biographies.[15]

An example of the perpetuated gender inequality on Wikipedia exists in interpretations of gendered language, particularly on articles about women, in which the use of gendered language (e.g., “female” or “wife”) implies a gender binary from which interpretations of heteronormativity are applied to the content of the article itself. Such use of female-gendered language affects the notability of the article in question; an article is considered more notable if gendered language is used in conjunction with a particular achievement (e.g., “first female mayor”). The discussion of the notability of a Wikipedia article also involves its relevance to other context existent on Wikipedia; an article is more likely to be marked for deletion if it lacks hyperlinks to other Wikipedia articles. A Wikipedia article with low notability according to its point of view is more likely to be marked for deletion.[16] Reports of women claiming that editing Wikipedia articles is something that they fear is a critical component of gender-based violence online. WiR, a group of editors committed to improving structural inequalities on Wikipedia through the creation of female generated content, describes how efforts for female publication are challenged by being flagged as non-notable and thus nominated for deletion.

Gender inequality on Wikipedia is also exemplified through the reluctance of female editors to edit existing pages. Studies have found that male editors overwhelmingly populate the percentage of Wikipedia page editors at approximately 70-80%.[17] Issues of safety are relevant in this conversation as the small proportion of women who do participate in these edits feel pressured to reside within the “quiet corners” of Wikipedia as a personal precaution.[18] This implies that women choose to integrate their edits within topics and pages that are not prone to harassment by other editors. Participation in Wikipedia article editing requires heavy emotional labor for women due to its hostile and judgmental environment posed by existing gender inequalities. Overcoming gender barriers online presents challenges that have been mitigated in physical spaces. That is, anonymity and efficiency that coincide with the essence of the technological media allow for past prejudices to pervade participatory publishing sites.

Among victims who are minors, these experiences and the impacts are similar. Along with the experiences of cyberbullying, young people can experience specific impacts from gendered violence online. This more commonly appears as difficulty forming healthy relationships or trust after receiving violent threats.[20] Young people may also fear for their safety following events of online violence and many become less involved in online communities or in activities out of fear that these actions could lead to further violence against the victim.

Acts of violence and harassment online can lead victims to withdraw from social environments, both online and in person.[21] Young women aged 18–24 are far more likely to experience online harassment than older women, most likely due to their level of access and involvement with online communities and causes them to be more likely to experience the negative impacts of online gendered violence.[7] Other impacts victims may experience depression and other mental health issues.[19]

The United States Department of State currently has policies which address gender-based violence, but do not have develop policies regarding online gender-based violence. The United States has not addressed online gender-based violence on a legislative level[23] despite there being a push from activists and internet users for more concrete policies that denounce and decrease the pervasiveness of online gender-based violence.

There are organizations across the world seeking to address the problem of online gender-based violence. These include United Nations organizations such as the UNESCO[24] and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.[25]

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) is an agency of the Swedish government working to bring awareness to online gender-based violence in the hopes of increasing regulations. They have also published a report which found that over the last few years, online gender-based violence has garnered acknowledgment within the international community. The SIDA report serves as a source of information to further regulation process. It also noted the role of organizations such as the Women's Rights Programme of the Association of Progressive Communication in pushing for an increase in substantive policies regarding online gender-based violence. This report also points out the discrepancies between international regulations and state implementation.[26]

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has been working since 2005 to end violence against women in the online space by strengthening women's rights organizations and activists working to end online gender-based violence.[27] One of their projects in particular, "End violence: Women's rights and safety online" focuses on strengthening women's safety and security "by preventing the growing violence against women through ICTs." is being carried out in seven countries worldwide. Countries are: Bosnia Herzegovina, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, and the Philippines. Some other APC projects include websites such as Take Back The Tech! and "GenderIT.org" which focus on providing tools for coping with receiving online gender-based violence and defend against online internet users who are spreading online gender-based violence.[28]