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With cases like the 'Bulli Bai App' coming into the picture, it's high time that we take cyber-violence against women seriously!
Opening a new account on any social media platform is damn easy, but are the consequences of being on social media ‘ideal’? Ask yourself!
Finding your DMs brimming with thirsty messages from random people, friend requests from people you don’t know, seeing creepy comments on your pictures, all this makes you believe how easy it has become to harass people. And being a woman active on social media platforms, I can tell you that the situation gets even worse for us.
The developments in technology are acting as catalysts in creating a new world of gender-based violence. Online gender-based violence is not a new phenomenon, but it is a continuum of violence that women face offline. The root causes of all forms of gender-based violence are the same.
Gender-based violence has been described by the World Health Organization as a global public health problem of epidemics proportions and a fundamental violation of human rights. New forms of gender-based violence have emerged with the help of technological advancement that turns into cyber violence against women, which is spreading rapidly and poses a significant risk.
My heart aches to say this but we ourselves have normalised cyber-violence. It has become OKAY for us to read comments like “looking cute babe”, “you look hot”, or receive messages like “hey dear”, “Why are you not replying to my messages, where have you been, I saw you in a café, you were in black dress”, on Facebook and Instagram. And after being getting ignored for days, they start calling you “bitch” and “slut” and start abusing you here and there and start threatening physically. Are you feeling the intensity of the threat because you don’t know this person, or because he knows A to Z about you?
While there are no formally recognized definitions, academics, researchers have tried to define this technology-based violence against women. Research by Association For Progressive Communication defines technology-related violence as encompassing acts of gender-based violence that are committed, abetted, or aggravated in part or fully using information and communication technologies such as phones, the internet, social media platforms, and email.
In July 2020, the World Wide Web Foundation found that we face a parallel pandemic of cyber-violence, with 52 per cent of women reporting having experienced some form of online abuse, and 87 per cent of the belief that the problem of cyber-violence was getting worse. Cyber-violence has severe impact on women’s well-being, affecting them psychologically, emotionally, and socially. They could even face financial and economic loss because of the violence. This is also the reason why many women deactivate their accounts and stop expressing themselves on online platforms. This hinders women’s free expression. The violence which takes place on an online platform is a powerful force leading to women’s self-censorship.
The Khap Panchayat and other such groups have said that women should be kept away from technology because it is not good for them. Victims have been blamed that they should behave ‘maturely’. They are made to understand their limitations and refrain from posting their photos, thoughts, etc.
Executive director of the UN WOMEN, Phumzile Nlambongcuka expressed her apprehensions that because of this hostile online culture women would restrict themselves from the internet due to the pervasiveness of cyber violence. To be disconnected from technology in the 21st century would be like having your freedom disrupted, your right to work, your right to meet people, your right to learn, your speech freedom being infringed.
So, if women become so intimidated and traumatized from such experiences, they should understand that it is the whole world that will be lost to them. Internet is being cored as a social structure and a crucial platform for active citizenship and voice and agency.
By not recognizing cyber-violence as serious violence, we will be putting society and future generations at risk. Doing this makes them more vulnerable to violence and harassment. In a world where they should not be expected to disengage, this violence is restricting their freedom of movement, their right to express, their right to choose. With cases like the ‘Bulli Bai App’ coming into the picture, it’s high time that we take cyber-violence seriously!
Image Source: Still from Mental Health and Human Rights Info Website
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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