Essay: Targeted Online Harassment
Since the inception of the internet, the culture surrounding the subspaces of websites, blogs, video services and social media platforms has always been intoxicating. Since the early 2000s, online spaces were unmonitored and unregulated by governments all over the world. There were very few agencies that oversaw the management and monitoring of websites and blogs. As the platforms were unrestricted and did not have the oversight required, many users started to mishandle and abuse the restriction-less access to create a hateful culture against individuals/groups whom they hated including women, people of colour and many ethnic and religious minorities.
When platforms like MySpace and Facebook emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s, users often started sharing hateful imagery and indulged in cyberbullying against people with real names. This hate culture has also never been stopped because of the anonymity of users who do it. Platforms like 4Chan, Reddit etc. have anonymous users talking, discussing a specific thing/person/issue. This promoted the hate culture because they had the freedom to comment on the people they didn’t like while being nameless.
An example of online harassment is cyberbullying, it is when a person posts rumours, threats, remarks about someone on the internet, leak their personal information (address, family names etc.) or indulge in hate speech with an intent to harm. Since the late 2000s and early 2010s, the digital sphere was expanded and included many vulnerable groups like children and teenagers.
On September 22nd 2010, a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Tyler Clementi committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. This was caused by his friend using a webcam on him in his room and recording Clementi kissing another man. The video was posted on Twitter by the person who secretly recorded it. Tyler was 18 and recently came out as gay to his parents and was frustrated to see the video on the internet which led him to commit suicide. The death brought national attention to the case and the issue of cyberbullying against a minority in this case the LGBT youth.
A more recent example of online harassment is hate raids. On the streaming platform Twitch, hate raids are situations where a live stream is targeted and raided by bots or other viewers and intentionally spam the live stream chat with hateful messages. These raids are targeted at streamers with tags of minorities like LGBT, female streamers, black streamers and streamers of other ethnic tags.
There has been much discussion on online harassment, cyberbullying, stalking, trolling etc. The sub-culture of hate has also been in male-dominated communities of online gaming, meme forums, etc. These spaces are often unsafe and abhorrent for women to look at or involve themselves in. Mainly in the online gaming community, there are many instances of gatekeeping and harassment of girls in video game lobbies.
Gamergate
The harassment campaign of women in the gaming industry known as Gamergate was centred around sexism and anti-progressivism in video game culture. Many women game developers were targeted and were disparaged and doxxed online. Notably, Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu were sent death threats and had their addresses leaked. In retrospect, the Gamergate situation can be described as a manifestation of a culture war over-diversification and social criticism in video games. It was promoted by a right-wing ideological backlash against progressivism. It was also a big instance of online gender-based violence.
Sexism and misogyny didn’t begin their course online but the culture surrounding the internet was always hateful towards women and people of other gender identities. There was very little acceptance of gender identities on the internet. Females are also targeted for comments which are sexually violent in nature. These comments are made under blogs, articles, images, tweets etc.
These instances are important in addressing the status of equality, discrimination and prejudice because the internet has become a major part of our lives. They determine the safety of using the internet as minors. Many online celebrities like YouTubers for example are daily targets of hate campaigns. These hate campaigns are due to conflict, adversity, jealousy, etc.
The issue of online harassment is important in the discourse of development because it notes the issues of certain groups on the internet and the hate against them. The social media subculture now encompasses fandoms and followings of personalities for example the K-pop community which majorly resides on Twitter and YouTube. These fandoms have collective minds due to what they see on their Twitter timelines. Same with many other followings. These groups target other people who criticize or make fun of them by trolling and harassment. It might not be important in hindsight but many teenagers and children use the platforms and their lives are currently being shaped by the toxic culture the platforms promote.
While talking about the legality of online harassment and the grey area it covers, many underdeveloped and developing countries where the Internet is a luxury don’t have laws and enforcement specifically for online abuse or harassment. However, in developed countries like the United States, cybercrime and online harassment is prevalent. The police agencies have their own cybercrime units specifically tasked with happenings online (text messaging, comments, imagery etc). There are many laws being written in the US and India to tackle online harassment especially towards minors but the internet being worldwide there are problems of cooperation of law enforcement, different laws, regulations etc, which makes it more difficult for the agencies to formulate a case.
In 2021, targeted online harassment is a major issue because it affects people’s mental health and disturbs so-called ‘peace’ in their lives. We live in a new age, the age of the internet and if this age will follow its predecessor’s legacy of violence, discrimination and harassment against genders, ethnic and religious minorities, the technological advancement and moving forward towards a better future will always be a lie until all of us are perceived equally.
People should approach thinking more dialectically. Many intellectuals call it the liberal way of thinking. But to be rational is not liberal. The future will always be more progressive than the past. Discrimination will always be an issue but tackling it has become easier through means of communication like the internet. For example, the MeToo movement which initially began on MySpace in 2006 was popularized on platforms like YouTube and Twitter. It is a social movement against sexual abuse and harassment where people publicize the allegations of a sex crime. While this may not be online harassment, the movement grew to its popularity on the internet which provided a safe haven for a lot of women to speak out online.
To make the internet a safer space, corporations and certain people should be held accountable. Many platforms knowingly tolerate the hateful behaviour of their users, it encapsulates the toxic subspaces. In wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests many social media platforms have made their policies stricter towards racism and sexism.
Written on 29th August 2021 for Development Communication essay assignment.
