Combating the Abuse Of Women Online, On Social Media And Dating Sites
By Jessica Huhn for DateAha!
We at DateAha! are particularly aware of the problem of abusive behavior towards women online, on both social media and dating sites. Both types of websites desperately need effective accountability systems to make them safer and more civil, and to hold men responsible for their misconduct. Unfortunately, at present, the overwhelming response to inappropriate comments directed at women, in both avenues, is complete inaction. It’s time to hold men accountable for their abusive online behavior.
Let’s examine social media first — specifically, Twitter.
Amnesty’s Twitter Abuse Study: The Findings
To find out just how regularly women are verbally assaulted on Twitter, a recent Amnesty International study combined volunteer analysis with data science and machine learning. In the study, humans manually analyzed 228,000 tweets sent to 778 female politicians and journalists in the UK and USA in 2017, and made educated judgments about whether tweets were abusive based on both language and context. Then, AI software extrapolated the results of the human analysis.
- The study, the largest ever of its kind, found that, on average, an “abusive or problematic” tweet is sent to a woman every 30 seconds. (Around 1.1 million abusive tweets are sent per year).
- “Abusive” tweets were defined as those that contain “physical or sexual threats, wishes for the physical harm or death, reference to violent events, behaviour that incites fear or repeated slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone.” These tweets actively breach Twitter’s own prohibited content policies.
- “Problematic” tweets were defined as those that “contain hurtful or hostile content, especially if repeated to an individual on multiple or occasions, but do not necessarily meet the threshold of abuse.” These toxic tweets don’t always violate Twitter’s policies, but they still intimidate individuals and/or pressure them into silence.
- This study only examined tweets sent to female politicians and journalists in the US and UK, so it doesn’t include the countless inappropriate tweets sent to women in other professions worldwide.
- Even worse, the project found that women of color were targeted far more often. Black women are 84% more likely to receive abusive tweets than white women, and all women of color are 34% more likely to receive abusive tweets than white women.
This data confirms what women, and people of color, have tried to tell the general public for years — social media lets sexist and racist behavior flourish without consequence.
Twitter Abuse: The Needed Response
But no one argues that Twitter should be shut down because of all this abuse. After all, Twitter is an institution and a needed platform for magnifying stories and opinions that might otherwise go unheard. Instead, the outcry is that Twitter should remove the offending tweets and hold abusers accountable, rather than continue to endorse this abuse through a lack of action.
Twitter claims that they already use a combination of machine and human analysis to combat abusive Tweets. However, the countless abusive tweets that Amnesty has found on the platform make it clear that Twitter is not taking enough action. Amnesty has also called on Twitter to “make available meaningful and comprehensive data regarding the scale and nature of abuse on their platform, as well as how they are addressing it.” And Twitter’s failure to release this data is quite telling — -they are letting the majority of this abuse slide. Twitter’s policies condemn attacks on users that are based on race, gender, and other protected categories, but it is clear that their actions are not always consistent with these policies.
Milena Marin, Amnesty International’s senior advisor for tactical research, warns that “Twitter’s failure to crack down on this problem means it is contributing to the silencing of already marginalised voices.” If Twitter takes proper action, though, women and people of color will realize that their voices, opinions, and selves truly have value, and be less likely to silence themselves or leave the platform.
Online Dating Sites: Plagued with Inaction Against Abuse
Similar to Twitter, online dating sites are also rife with inappropriate behavior, including sexually abusive messages. In addition, like Twitter, countless women have fallen victim to men who think that their behavior will continue to be unchecked.
After all, dating websites often do nothing to hold abusive men accountable for their behavior. They ignore women who report abusive conduct, and allow repeat offenders to lurk on their site without punishment. Even worse, the sites allow men with public harassment records to use their services, without coming even remotely close to initiating a vetting process. Thus, inaction on dating sites’ part is effectively an endorsement of inappropriate behavior. The online dating community has become an unsafe, uncivilized jungle where men think they can be as rude, aggressive, and sexually inappropriate as they want.
But online dating sites aren’t going anywhere. And as with Twitter, the solution isn’t to close these sites down. Instead, these sites desperately need a system to hold men accountable for their inappropriate actions.
DateAha!: The Accountability System Online Dating Needs
But what if women could post feedback right on an abusive man’s online dating profile, to warn other women? Fear of negative feedback would drive bad actors off of the platforms and pressure others into behaving more appropriately. Plus, in this #metoo era, the ability to post feedback would empower women and build a community that listens to their reports of abuse, rather than ignoring the reports outright.
Enter DateAha! DateAha!, a browser extension, allows dating site users to post feedback on top of any dating profile, plus read and reply to others’ comments. The comments from DateAha! users will force men to act more responsibly and respectfully, or leave the site for good — they will no longer be able to use dating sites to prey on or degrade women.
The #metoo movement has magnified so many women’s voices, and has helped countless women call out bad behavior in real life. DateAha!’s mission is to take that effort to the online dating world and make it safer, saner and more civil for everyone.
Use app.dateaha.com to get free comments and messaging at any dating site.
