Online Abuse Against Women: The Fightback Has Begun

The author of this article has been called a 'fucking baby killer'. She has been threatened with rape several times and has been called a bitch and a cunt.

Online harassment, especially against women, is nasty, brutish and never short. There are cases of women suffering from PTSD after unending online abuse, and others who have had their photos transmuted onto obscene images.

You might be wondering where the good news is in this all. The good news is that the fightback has begun in full earnest. The author, a feminist activist and founder–director of a women's literature festival in Bristol, says action against trolls and online harassment is now a rapidly growing movement, one that involves a whole gamut of agencies including NGOs, government departments, activists and of course women themselves.

A report by Amnesty International, 'Toxic Twitter', criticized the social media platform roundly for its 'failure to protect women users'. It went on to warn that the 'censoring impact of violence and abuse' can have far-reaching consequences on young women, especially those from marginalized communities. The author says Amnesty is now campaigning to get social media platforms to be more transparent about how they moderate abuse reports.

An online campaign called 'Troll Busters' offers support to journalists experiencing abuse. Set up by Michelle Ferrier, an American columnist, Troll Busters has been lauded by the likes of Columbia Journalism Review for its 'invaluable service'.

Another heartening fact is there have been many government-led recommendations that have called out public intimidation, while some publications have taken voluntary action to reduce the abuse received by their writers.

Ultimately, as the author rightly says, online abuse against women thrives because misogyny, toxic masculinity, homophobia and racism flourish in the real world. Until these are effectively tackled offline, there can never be complete success in combating them online.