Internet harassment of women is a serious issue. It can take many forms, and has come under increasing focus in recent years. Its common forms include stalking, revenge porn, doxing, sexualized ridicule, impersonation, rape and murder threats, posts fantasizing about raping the target, posting of false, defamatory allegations compromising employment prospects and social life, besides causing emotional distress and withdrawal. These and other forms of harassment get quickly and widely circulated on multiple websites with a diverse geographical and jurisdictional distribution, compounding the difficulties of tackling internet harassment. Young women and women of color face the highest rates of stalking on the internet.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] A recent academic study found that although legal remedies are available in the US, they are difficult to pursue due to various factors..[9]
Any long term behavior, or set of behaviors, which causes emotional distress to the target is usually described as "Internet harassment".[1][10]
Common forms
editCyberstalking
editCyberstalking is usually defined as behavior, or set of behaviors, which causes fear in the target. It is a common way of harassing women. Preliminary studies indicate that the majority of cyberstalking victims are women, with young women, and women of color being at highest risk.[1][3][10]
Defamation
editHarassment victims usually face defamatory tactics like circulation of nude images, morphed images, revenge porn, impersonations of the target offering sexual services or seeking sexual partners and false claims of the target being infected with sexually transmitted diseases.[1][6] In many cases, spurned ex-lovers have upload revenge porn on the internet. While men have been targeted in some cases, most of the targets of revenge porn are women, and the impact of revenge porn is greater for women.
http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/10/22/online-harassment/
Cybermobs
editSocial media
editSocial media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are usually not required to remove offensive posts under US laws, but may remove them according their own terms of use, or other reasons. Facebook has been criticized for being loath to take down misogynist pages. On one occasion, at least a hundred activist groups objected to misogynist content, and started a campaign to force Facebook to remove the content. Facebook initially refused to remove the pages by claiming that the content was compliant with its terms of use, but removed the content after fifteen advertisers withdrew their ads from Facebook in response activist petitions.[11][12][13][14]
While twitter has also been criticized for its lukewarm response to harassment, it has vowed to combat online harassment, and has started collaborating with independent women's groups like Women, Action & the Media and others to identify and improve its response.[15][16][17]
http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/reports/news/a31899/internet-inventor-online-violence-women/
http://thewebindex.org/report/#4._the_web_and_gender_inequality
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/05/twitter-ceo-we-suck-dealing-with-trolls-abuse
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/new-media/item/40509-wit2015/
Internet structure
editThe internet design and structures were mostly created by men, and it has been suggested many of the problems that women face on the internet crop up because these structures were not designed keeping female participation in mind. Although internet is usually expected to be neutral, this neutrality has been described as a "myth" for females and gender minorities.
Effects
editInternet harassment can entail serious consequences for women. Harassment and stalking can compromise employment and educational opportunities, cause emotional distress, fear, and force them to withdraw from internet and social life. It can also cause severe health problems and result in women having to incur expenses to ensure security, and to take down offensive content from the internet. Withdrawal from internet can compromise their freedom of expression and restricts women's voices from having a proportionate participation on the internet.
http://www.popline.org/node/530156
Feminist writers are so besieged by online abuse that some have begun to retire
Coping
editAcademic studies and statistics
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d Danielle Citron, "Are Men Really Harassed Online More Than Women?" Forbes,
- ^ Danielle Citron, "Hate Crimes in Cyberspace", Harvard University Press.
- ^ a b Huddleston, Jr., Tom (22 October 2014). "Online harassment is epidemic with young women feeling the brunt". Fortune.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Hess, Amanda (6 January 2014). "Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet". Pacific Standard.
- ^ Marwick, Alice; Miller, Ross (10 June 2014). "Online Harassment, Defamation, and Hateful Speech: A Primer of the Legal Landscape". Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy.: 3, 5, 15, 16.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help); no-break space character in|title=at position 51 (help) - ^ a b Chemaly, Soraya (9 September 2014). "There's No Comparing Male and Female Harassment Online". Time.
- ^ Chemerinsky, Erwin (19 January 2015). "Can the First Amendment Survive the Internet?". The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- ^ Chemaly, Soraya (29 January 2013). "The Digital Safety Gap and the Online Harassment of Women". The Huffington Post.
- ^ Marwick, Alice; Miller, Ross (10 June 2014). "Online Harassment, Defamation, and Hateful Speech: A Primer of the Legal Landscape". Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy.: 3, 6, 26.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help); no-break space character in|title=at position 51 (help) - ^ a b Jaishankar, K.; Sankary, V. Uma. "Cyber Stalking: A Global Menace in the Information Super Highway". European and International research group on crime, Social Philosophy and Ethics.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Marwick, Alice; Miller, Ross (10 June 2014). "Online Harassment, Defamation, and Hateful Speech: A Primer of the Legal Landscape". Fordham Center on Law and Information Policy.: 15.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help); no-break space character in|title=at position 51 (help) - ^ Cochrane, Kira (21 May 2013). "Fighting hate speech against women on Facebook". The Guardian.
- ^ Bennett-Smith, Meredith (29 May 2013). "Facebook Vows To Crack Down On Rape Joke Pages After Successful Protest, Boycott". The Huffington Post.
- ^ Carroll, Rory (29 May 2013). "Facebook gives way to campaign against hate speech on its pages". The Guardian.
- ^ Fitzgerald, Brian R. (7 November 2014). "New Online Tool Lets Twitter Users Report Harassment". The Wall Street Journal. Associated Press.
- ^ "Trusted Resources". Twitter Inc.
- ^ Marcotte, Amanda (7 November 2014). "Can These Feminists Fix Twitter's Harassment Problem?". The Slate Group.
External links
edithttp://chronicle.com/article/Can-the-First-Amendment/151191/
http://geekfeminism.org/2015/01/19/lets-talk-to-the-men-this-time-combating-online-harassment/
Citron book ( this appears to be the latest and best authority )
Online Harassment, Defamation, and Hateful Speech: A Primer of the Legal Landscape ( new, authoritative study )
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/30/5-facts-about-online-harassment/
 | This is not a Wikipedia article: It is an individual user's work-in-progress page, and may be incomplete and/or unreliable. For guidance on developing this draft, see Wikipedia:So you made a userspace draft. Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |