Sunday Times 2
Consent in the world of the Internet
In Sri Lanka, and elsewhere, a man (like myself) standing at a bus stop will not have the same experience as a woman or a gender non-conforming person doing the same daily mundane activity. Similarly, our experiences online, especially on social media, are also mediated and shaped by our own gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, class and so on.
In recent years, harmful and sometimes dangerous speech on social media platforms — including online hate speech, disinformation and forms of harassment — has become a pervasive force in Sri Lanka with much of this content being deeply gendered and sexualised. A majority of such content is disseminated via Facebook and YouTube, the more popular social media platforms in the country, as well as private messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Online harassment: Talks to someone you trust. Pic courtesy cnn.com
Women and queer people of influence such as those involved in politics, activism and entertainment industries are also disproportionately targeted by such harassment and violence. This represents a major threat to their full and equal participation in public life, as this type of content can cause individual harm (such as psychological harm) and also result in those targeted deciding to self-censor or disengage.
This article is informed by ongoing social media monitoring work conducted by Hashtag Generation. The social media monitoring efforts have found, for instance, that the lifespan of any sudden spikes in online gender-based harmful speech triggered by an individual offline event is two weeks at most. For example, misogynistic content was circulated online when a decapitated body of a woman was discovered stuffed in a suitcase on Dam Street in March last year. Similarly, sexist and misogynistic content was also circulated in the aftermath of the Mrs World Sri Lanka 2021 contest. Each of these is a “real world” event that led to a wave of online harmful speech, often including the malicious targeted harassment of those involved.
According to the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT), there’s been a 460% increase in the number of complaints it received in 2020. The vast majority of the complaints are what it terms ‘abusive content (other harassment)’.
In the recent Women in Need (WIN) report titled ‘Technology Facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls in Sri Lanka’ (https://wincyberviolence.lk), survey data revealed that nearly one in four individuals knew of a friend who experienced online harassment of a sexual nature. One in five individuals reported knowing of someone who had edited, doctored or photoshopped images shared on the internet. Non-consensual sharing of intimate content, including images, videos and screengrabs of private conversations is also highly prevalent among Sri Lankan internet users. There is an ecosystem of social media pages and groups which have been created with the explicit intent of routinely collecting and sharing non-consensual intimate images of women, girls and gender non-conforming people. Further, YouTube channels often use non-consensual intimate images as clickbait and also have non-consensual intimate video clips which are partially censored in an attempt to evade the platform’s content moderation systems.
In addition to the intimate content, there are also pages and groups that source and disseminate private images of Sri Lankans, especially women. These are often not intimate images but simply images of these individuals going about their day-to-day lives. However, these images are often circulated in these pages and groups with explicit sexual intent accompanied by texts that invite more sexist and misogynistic comments. Since these images are sourced from the public domain (such as from gossip sites) and do not contain nudity, social media companies often do not understand them to be violating their Community Standards and Policies.
However, such pages and groups foster an unsafe environment online and normalise cultures of sexism and misogyny. Consequently, they also enable real-world-harm which is experienced by women, girls and LGBTQI+ Sri Lankans in their day-to-day lives. Additionally, these pages have been observed to enable doxing — sharing identifiable information or private details such as names, home and workplace addresses with malicious intent. Administrators of such pages and groups often encourage users to expand these networks by widely sharing new content and inviting their friends to join these groups and pages.
Recently, while social media intermediaries such as Facebook have taken some action by recruiting more local content moderators and improving automated detection, these appear to be largely focused on ethnoreligious harmful speech, while gendered and sexualised content has not been prioritised. In this vein, it is important to flag that while I have distinguished between ethnoreligious dangerous speech and gendered and sexualised dangerous speech, it is not always easy to separate these types of content from each other as ethnoreligious dangerous speech can often be gendered and sexualised and contemporaneously gendered and sexualised dangerous speech can also circulate based on ethnoreligious grounds.
For instance, in 2021 anti-Muslim conversations which emerged when the government announced that it intends to ban full-face veils in public places had both gendered as well as ethnoreligious dimensions. However, social media intermediaries appear to view gender and sexuality-based hate speech and harassment as “less serious”, in comparison to ethnoreligious hate speech. This is perhaps because gender and sexuality-based violence often does not erupt in a single moment in the same way that an ethnoreligious riot does and often does not receive the same level of media coverage.
However, for many women and LGBTIQ+ folks in Sri Lanka, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) has become a facet of violence. Online SGBV is one manifestation of a wider problem and contributes to the normalisation of these harmful attitudes and behaviour.
What can you do?
If you or someone you know is facing a situation of online harassment, remember that you are not alone, and that there are many avenues of support. Different people can also be affected differently by the same situation. While discussing online abuse can elicit feelings of fear and shame, remember that you have done nothing wrong. If possible, talk to someone you trust.
The first step in asking for help is figuring out the nature of abuse. Keep in mind that if you report online abuse to a social media platform, it could get removed. While this is great, you might also lose the evidence you need if you wish to take action later on. This is why it is critical to document abuse before reporting it. Save screenshots, emails, voice notes, and texts whenever possible. If you’re being abused repeatedly by a specific individual or group, you can also consider creating a log, which can help you see patterns and build up evidence. This might also be quite overwhelming, so remember to take care of yourself and also speak to someone if you need help.
Has online abuse caused you to worry about the physical safety or security of yourself or someone you know? If yes, you may need to take some steps such as informing others who may be affected, taking extra precautions for your safety, alerting law enforcement if you so wish or seeking the support of a lawyer or an institution offering legal aid and advice on mental well-being.
Resist the temptation to retaliate publicly, especially against trolls. Once you’ve collected the evidence, you can use the tools available on the platform you are using to report, block, mute, filter or delete abusive users or content. However, keep in mind that while valuable, these tools are also not perfect solutions. On the other hand, speaking out against abuse can also be profoundly empowering. The key is to be careful and deliberate as you decide what you want to do. You know your circumstances best! It can be difficult to find the mental space to tackle your cybersecurity when you’re being targeted. However, features such as privacy settings and two-factor authentication are some of the options you have to protect yourself and your privacy from being further targeted.
Legal provisions in the Penal Code and other laws such as the Computer Crimes Act can be used to take action against perpetrators of cyber-bullying and harassment. However, the lack of awareness surrounding these issues, including amongst law enforcement officials, a general mistrust in the legal system and long delays in court proceedings have disincentivised some people from taking action. However, resorting to law enforcement remains an avenue you can take.
We also need to demand much better action from giant social media corporations. After all, they generate profit out of our interactions and engagements online. Therefore, these platforms have a duty of care to their users to ensure that they are not subjected to violence and harassment. Finally, as internet users, we also need to make it clear, especially to men and boys, that it is important to respect others’ consent online, just as one is expected to do so offline.