Glitch: The Ripple Effect: Covid-19 and the Epidemic of Online Abuse

origi­nal post from Glitch here

Glitch and the End The Violence Coali­tion, (EVAW), the leading coali­tion of speci­a­list women’s support servi­ces, have rele­a­sed a report in response to the gende­red online impact of Covid. In Summer 2020, we under­took the largest data­set into the gende­red impact of Covid-19 online. 

Key findings include: 

• Almost 1 in 2 (46%) women and non binary people repor­ted expe­ri­en­cing online abuse since the begin­ning of COVID-19
• 1 in 3 (29%) of those who had expe­ri­en­ced online abuse prior to the pande­mic repor­ted it being worse during COVID-19
• 84% of respon­dents expe­ri­en­ced online abuse from stran­gers – accounts that they did not know prior to the inci­dent(s).
• Most of the abuse took place on mains­tream social media plat­forms (Twit­ter, Face­book, Insta­gram) despite tech compa­ni­es’ commit­ments to making their plat­forms safe and addres­sing gender-based and inter­sec­ti­o­nal abuse
• Gender was the most often cited reason for online abuse, with 48% of respon­dents repor­ted suffe­ring from gender-based online violence 

The full survey findings have been publis­hed in our new report, The Ripple Effect: Covid-19 and the Epide­mic of Online Abuse.  The report also high­ligh­ted key inequa­li­ties in the expe­ri­ence of white women and women from Black and mino­ri­ti­sed back­grounds. Black and mino­ri­ti­sed women were more likely to have expe­ri­en­ced an incre­ase in online abuse, were more likely to modify their beha­vi­ours as a result and were more likely to feel like their complaints had not been addres­sed. If we’re to truly tackle online abuse, we can no longer ignore that women and non-binary people – espe­ci­ally those from alre­ady margi­na­li­sed commu­ni­ties – are dispro­por­ti­o­na­tely impac­ted.

Our Key Recom­men­da­ti­ons

The govern­ment needs to imple­ment a compre­hen­sive public health appro­ach to tack­ling online abuse, inclu­ding provi­ding clear recom­men­da­ti­ons to employers on how to keep their employees safe online, publis­hing nati­o­nal guidance on digi­tal safety, parti­cu­larly when working from home.

There is an urgent need for grea­ter finan­cial invest­ment from govern­ment, tech compa­nies and employers in digi­tal educa­tion program­mes and rese­arch. While this rese­arch is the most ambi­ti­ous attempt to docu­ment online abuse against women and non-binary people in the UK during COVID-19, more rese­arch is needed into gender-based and inter­sec­ti­o­nal abuse, as well as the impact of online abuse on Black and mino­ri­ti­sed commu­ni­ties.

Content mode­ra­tion on social media plat­forms needs to be more effec­tive and trans­pa­rent and give more control to users over their online expe­ri­en­ces. Content mode­ra­tion efforts need to take into account the ever-evol­ving context.

Resour­ces

Along with our conti­nued Summer 2020 programme, we also have a two page guide with top tips for working home safely.

We also have bespoke Glitch trai­ning for employers