One of the bleeding wounds of social media is harassment and insults targeting women in particular. On the subject, women from many fields, from the art world to politics, published a joint open letter. 200 women’s signatures were found on this letter.
Those who signed the open letter included former Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard, former US tennis player Billie Jean King, and British actresses Thandiwe Newton and Emma Watson. The letter was published at the United Nations (UN) Generational Equality Forum.
Statement from the former prime minister
“During my term as Prime Minister, like other women in public, I regularly received sexist and ugly social media posts, including pornographic cartoons,” former Australian Prime Minister Gillard told the BBC.
Gillard also added that the fact that women still face such harassment makes him angry and tired. The prepared letter was also forwarded to the management of social media and platforms such as Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter.
Social media executives also responded to the letter. Managers of social media platforms have committed to making improvements on issues such as improving harassment reporting systems, filtering content that users can see, and rules for interacting online.
There are concerns that the promises will not suffice.
Some signatories expressed their reservations about whether these promises were sufficient. Lucina Di Meco, the founder of #ShePersisted Global, which fights against the attacks women are exposed to online, said, “These abstract statements give technology companies a good chance of advertising, but they are not real promises. The companies do not intend to change the moderation of content and the algorithm preferences that reward bad behavior.” used.
Here is the women’s letter:
“The internet is like the town square of the 21st century. Discussions are held there, communities are built there, products are sold there, reputation is earned there. The point of online harassment is that for many women, this digital town square is unsafe. This puts progress in gender equality at risk. . ”
In previous studies, it was stated that most of the women faced direct harassment on the internet. Azmina Dhrodia, director of the World Wide Web Foundation, founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who develops the World Wide Web, said: “It is of great importance that we recognize that harassment and aggression against women on social media platforms is widespread and one of the biggest barriers to gender equality.”
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