‘Social media’: the harms to women and girls

Article here. Excerpt:

'Female politicians and journalists also experience higher incidence of online gender-based and sexual abuse and harassment than their male counterparts. This can result in self-censorship and a ‘chilling effect’, causing public figures to retreat from ‘social media’ or to restrict the topics they post about, thus inhibiting their professional and civic participation. According to many experts, gendered online violence against journalists now needs to be tackled as a multilevel, online-governance issue, rather than one of personal safety, with improved support from peers, employers and legal and political institutions.

Finally, the mainstreaming and normalisation of male-supremacist misogyny among youth poses a significant and urgent threat to women and girls on ‘social media’. Girls report that easy access to violent pornography is affecting boys’ understandings and expectations of sex.

Much of the misogyny experienced by women online originates in the ‘manosphere’, a loose network of anti-feminist and male-supremacist men’s communities, which has flourished thanks to the technological affordances of ‘social media’. The ‘manosphere’ and its asociated male and white-supremacist formations exploit these opportunities—not only to spread their gender-political beliefs but also to attack, threaten and harass women, people of colour and LGBT+ individuals. While it is difficult to determine the precise scale of this, recent research indicates that male-supremacist ideas and followings are spreading.
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The Digital Services Act promises to improve the safety of women and girls on ‘social media’ platforms through its focus on systemic risks. Careful monitoring and evaluation will however be required to ensure it meets these goals. We recommend that a gender-based review is conducted of the act, a year from the first risk assessments, to ensure it is functioning as intended and that the ‘social media’ companies are complying with their obligations on access to data and algorithmic transparency.'