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Cyber-Crime and Harassment and an Analysis of Gender- Based Vitriol Suggests That Online Harassment of Women Is Unique, Consistent, and Exponential

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Cyber-Crime and Harassment and an Analysis of Gender- Based Vitriol Suggests That Online Harassment of Women Is Unique, Consistent, and Exponential Occasional Paper ISSUE NO. 312 MAY 2021 © 2021 Observer Research Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, archived, retained or transmitted through print, speech or electronic media without prior written approval from ORF. Unsocial Media: Inclusion, Representation, and Safety for Women on Social Networking Platforms Mitali Mukherjee, Aditi Ratho and Shruti Jain Abstract Social media has had a transformative impact on how people live, engage with one another, and work. However, it can be a double-edged sword as it constantly evolves owing to modern technological innovation. This cannot be more true for the world’s women: social media gives them political, financial, and social empowerment, even as they battle lack of access, language barriers, and safety concerns. This paper analyses the intersection of social media and gender issues in India. It outlines the evolution of social media and explores whether it has become more conscious of gender representation over the last decade. It examines why women are unable to meaningfully reap the benefits of social media, and evaluates current mechanisms for online safety in India. It offers specific recommendations to make social media more inclusive and safer for the country’s women. Attribution: Mitali Mukherjee, Aditi Ratho and Shruti Jain, “Unsocial Media: Inclusion, Representation, and Safety for Women on Social Networking Platforms,” ORF Occasional Paper No. 312, May 2021, Observer Research Foundation. he 4th industrial revolution brings tremendous opportunities for greater connectivity and technological innovation, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data. These same innovations, however, have concomitant challenges. For example, social mediaa— Twhich has permeated the lives of large populations—has both positive and negative contributions to connectivity goals. This paper examines the engagement of women in India with social media. It attempts to answer the question of whether or not these platforms have become more attuned to gender issues including representation, safety and security. It is an important question, given how the number of internet users in India has reached half a billion as of November 2019 and is growing at a rate of 10 percent every year in urban areas and 15 percent in rural areas. One in every three (35 percent) of these users are women.1 The growth is reflected globally: data from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) shows that between 2010 and 2019, the number of people using the Internet more than doubled from 2 billion to 4.1 billion,2 and women, in particular, increased their online presence.3 Social media networks have proliferated, and although men continue to comprise a slightly higher percentage of Internet users than women in most of the world, experts say that women’s presence online has already achieved a critical mass.4 One in every three of India’s half-a-billion internet users are women. Introduction a ‘Social media’ here is defined as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. 3 An important facet of these patterns is in their geographic distribution. In India, internet penetration and digitisation has risen significantly in rural areas, and one-third of daily average users are from the rural regions.5 However, there remain gaps, and bringing connectivity to the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, villages and remote areas across the country will continue to require massive efforts in the coming days.6 Over the last 10 years, social media has grown, in terms of number of platforms as well as users, exponentially across the world. The most popular social media platforms today—including Twitter and Facebook—came into existence in the early 2000s. However, it is only in the last decade that these platforms started to have a significant degree of influence on people’s political, social and economic lives. This happened as social media platforms developed their mobile applications, and technologies became more user-friendly and accessible. Today, according to studies, a person spends an average of 145 minutes every day on social media— up from 90 minutes in 2012.7 This paper analyses the most fundamental obstacles that deny women in India the opportunity to engage meaningfully with social media. These are mostly Facebook and Twitter which, according to data are two of the most popular social networking sites in India.8 The first part explores the ten-year arc of social media, both in the global and Indian context. It will examine whether or not social media has become more representative of women over the past decade. It then describes the current scenario in India, outlining patterns of representation and inclusion (or exclusion); it also evaluates safety mechanisms, if any, against harassment online. The paper closes with a specific set of recommendations to make the social media landscape safer and more inclusive for the women of India. Introduction 4 The evolution of Social Media in the past decade In countries like the United States (US), there was already a fair proportion of women present across the most popular social media platforms in the early years of the growth of social media. For example, a 2013 study by the Pew Research Centre found that over 50 percent of Facebook users in the 18–28, 29–38, and 39–48 age groups use the platform “several times a day”.9 Before that, between December 2009 and December 2012, according to the same study, women were significantly more likely than men to use social networking sites in nine out of ten surveys that were conducted. During this period, the proportion of women who used social media sites was 10 percentage points higher than men on average. Figures from 2013 indicate that from 2008 to 2013, the average difference falls slightly to 8 percent. By 2013, three-quarters (74 percent) of women online were using social networking sites.10 Although in countries like the US, there was a fair proportion of women in social media platforms, they have often been underrepresented, implying that men are the cultural standard and women are unimportant or invisible. Moreover, men and women are portrayed in stereotypical ways that reflect and sustain socially endorsed views of gender. Third, depictions of relationships between men and women emphasise traditional roles and have often normalised violence against women.11 An online poll conducted by Amnesty International across eight high-income countries in 2017 revealed that 23 percent of women had experienced some form of abuse or harassment in social media platforms, ranging from 16 percent in Italy to 33 percent in the US.12 Concerns about the issues of representation and imagery in traditional media play out in the new social media landscape. Dieter’s 1989 study demonstrated a direct link between sexual aggression and one popular form of media, MTV (in the period of 1985 – 1995). The study suggests that heavy exposure to media depicting violence within relationships tends to normalise it, so that it is considered a natural part of intimacy.13 Women and Social Media: Women and Social Media: An Overview 5 In the countries of the European Union (EU), a survey in 2014 found that one in every 10 women had experienced online gender-based abuse since they started using social media at age 15. Online abuse took various forms: bullying, stalking, impersonation, non-consensual pornography, revenge porn or image-based sexual abuse/exploitation, and most commonly, hate speech. Worryingly, the study observed that gender inequality in the technology sector reverberates on platforms: algorithms are not immune to gender biases and can contribute to creating toxic “technocultures”, where anonymity, mob mentality and the permanence of harmful data online lead to women being constantly re-victimised.14 India’s Story In India, where the number of internet users is pegged at half a billion, 26 million new female users were added in a period of a year, as of November 2019. Indeed, the rate of increase in female internet users is higher than that of their male counterparts: in 2018-2019, the number of female users grew by 27 percent, higher than the 22-percent rise for males.15 In absolute numbers, however, India’s female online population is only half that of males; the gap is worse in the rural regions. It is important to bridge this gap in order to expand economic or business opportunities for women, as well as their means of communication and social interactions, and opportunities for political mobilisation and participation. The skew is sharper in the social media space: as of 2019, only 33 percent of women in India used social media, against 67 percent of men.16 Data also shows that 52 percent of women users in India do not trust the internet with their personal information. Women are 26 percent less likely to access mobile internet due to misogyny, harassment and revenge porn.17 To be sure, analysing trends in social media and gender in India is difficult because there is a lack of gender-specific data for these platforms. Neither the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) nor Google has such gender-aggregated data for India; according to sources from Google, most platforms do not even provide country-wise user numbers, leave alone breakups by gender or other variables.18 Women and Social Media: Women and Social Media: An Overview 6 igital tools like social media have not only democratised information but have also served as a crucial medium to engage the public in social and political issues. Its very nature allows for open expression of ideas and sharing of information through real-time collaboration among Dcontent providers, enterprises and users. While the tools of social media vary, their broad functionalities include economic or business opportunities, means of communication or nurturing social bonds, and political mobilisation and participation.
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