When the British actress Emma Watson campaigned in favor of gender equality in the United Nations (UN), she did not know who was making itself a target of persecution by a global mob.
Neither knew the developer Zoe Quinn games she would be abused by entering a predominantly male world – a hate campaign, called “gamergate” began when her ex-boyfriend accused her of having achieved a good media coverage of a of their games by offering sexual favors.
What came after was a misogynist harassment from other online players, including threats of rape and death. Similarly, the American actress Jennifer Lawrence has become a victim of “sexual offense” after photos in which she was naked were leaked and distributed by the digital world
As such, there are many other examples:. In constant connectivity times, technology has become a tool to “attack women and girls,” says the UN
Millions of women worldwide are subjected to domestic violence just for being what they are. women. And the popularity of communication technologies and social networks have enabled new forms of rape them.
It is time for the “world awakening” to the importance of this issue, the United Nations said. The organization estimates that 95% of all aggressive behavior and detractors on the Internet have women as targets.
“The online violence overthrew positive original premise of Internet freedom and, too often, to become a space chilling allowing anonymous cruelty and facilitates attacks against women and girls, “says Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women, the agency’s organization dedicated to gender equality and greater female power.
Gender-based violence in the world digital is no longer a “first world problem”, say experts in technology, and comes in the wake of the global popularization of smartphones and tablets and the Internet.
It is not easy to fight it, since technologies Digital is a double-edged sword, which can be used both to perpetrate gender violence as to make women feel safe and more independent.
digital Pandemic
> With one in three women have already suffered from it, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers violence against women “as a global health problem of epidemic proportions,” ranging from domestic abuse to harassment on the street, traffic sexual, rape and femicide.
Social media boosted further this pandemic. “The Internet is available to all, as well as violence. Their perpetrators are no longer limited by geographical or physical boundaries,” says Baroness Patricia Scotland, former Attorney General of the UK and founder of Alliance Corporate Against Domestic Violence organization.
The center of association studies for Progressive Communication established the “four A’s” that distinguish gender violence related to Technology: anonymity, accessibility, action at a distance (thus exerting less apparent form of violence without physical contact ) and automation (ie less time and effort are needed to perpetrate the attack)
This online violent behavior goes from cyber bullying and public vilification to physical aggression desire -. and the internet may be the tool to transform the virtual violence to real violence.
“Intimidation, threats and access to the victim’s information is not new tactics within the context of domestic violence. But the use of technology means that harassment and abuse can become much more invasive, intense and traumatic, “says Kaofeng Lee, the nonprofit National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV, its acronym in English).
A survey conducted by NNEDV, which is based in the United States, found that 89% of victims enrolled in programs related to domestic violence suffered some kind of abuse through technologies, often on different platforms. And the victims are younger and younger, according to the figures show.
Nothing hazing
The reaction in social networks famous women against such violence has helped to raise awareness on poblema, experts say.
It was not just Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Watson. There is also Caroline Criado-Perez, for example, that for a time became the main target of online abuse in the internet speaks English after asking the British government to put more women in the printed faces in paper money.
She was the victim of intense persecution on social media: insults, provocations and threats by other users. Some believe that the lack of regulation in most countries needs to be addressed, beyond the simple fact that digital bullying is not always taken seriously.
Danielle Citron, a professor at the University of Maryland and author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace (hate crimes in the cyber environment, in English), analyzed the most common reactions to threats of death and rape on the internet and found that sometimes these messages are considered “harmless” or “juvenile pranks.”
And the denunciation of tools created for social networks to help its members to report abuses “just a palliative to a problem of potentially dangerous real world.”
Citron has campaigned in the United States by laws that criminalize revenge porn. – posting sexually explicit images without the consent of the photographed person and a form of domestic violence in the digital age which is already penalized in some countries
But it has faced powerful critics , especially among online activists who argue that legislation so would hurt freedom of expression.
Jillian York, director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international organization that advocates for civil rights in the network, believes that social media platforms not should filter content to monitor cases of violence. “This sets a dangerous precedent for some groups require censorship of Facebook the subjects that interest you,” she wrote in Slate website.
Jonathan Bishop, a specialist in online harassment, states that, on most sites, . Users are able to control the collective behavior, despite considering that laws are necessary when this self-regulation fails
A recent UN study urges members of this market – ranging from providers and telephone service companies mobile social networking companies, video games and all types of sites – undertake such monitoring
“Technology companies need to explicitly recognize violence against women as a criminal behavior” and provide “support for victims / survivors. “says the report
But the picture is quite discouraging:. Statistics show that one in five Internet users live in countries where gender violence is unlikely to be punished by law <. /> p>
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