The Higher Council for Equality between Women and Men (HCE) published its latest report on January 23. Beyond the “alarming finding”, to use the words of the HCE note, it highlights that all forms of harassment against women persist, particularly with regard to cyberbullying.
The HCE denounces the phenomenon of reaction which means “backlash”. This term was initiated in 1991 by the American writer Susan Faludi and points to the anti-feminist and reactionary discourses that have emerged as a result of feminist movements and advances since the 1970s. This is how violent reactions arise from the advancement of women’s rights and they give rise to terms such as “neofeminism”, “wokism”, “feminazi”… Reactions that are also expressed through social networks.
The authors of these raids are organized in forums and seek, for example, to close accounts that bother them. They then designate accounts for mass reporting. “They’ve been very well organized for a number of years,” says Tech&Co Elvire Duvelles-Charles, author of the book. Feminism and social networks, a story of love and hate (Out of Scope editions) and creator of the Clit Revolution Instagram account.
Targeted by gender
Several studies show that these actions persist. In 2018, Amnesty International took a special interest in public figures such as women politicians or journalists. In a given sample, an artificial intelligence has identified a million abusive tweets over the course of a year, or one hate post every thirty seconds directed at them.
On the web, other public figures such as streamers are also subjected to these insults, such as Nat’Ali, a video game streamer on Twitch for almost six years, who suffers daily cyberbullying, or Maghla, one of the most followed streamers in France with 700,000 subscribers. in nervous contraction On October 24, 2022, the videographer posted a series of messages in which she exposes the hateful content she faces daily on the internet. The Ultia streamer has announced that she has filed a complaint for the wave of cyberbullying she suffered at the end of October.
Beyond public figures, many women are victims of cyberbullying. Thus, a study carried out by the Pew Research Center in 2021 reports that 47% of the women surveyed have been the victim of online harassment due to their gender. According to a UN report, 73% of women have already been subjected to misogynistic hate online for the wrong reasons.
The HCE report takes up the media example of the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard “which has received extraordinary attention on social media for several weeks,” the report analyzes. For author Rose Lamy, quoted in the report, this issue is symptomatic of a “crisis of sleeping masculinity.”
Cyber bullying and kickback
And the HCE to alert: “the serious threats of diminishing the rights of women and the fear of a reaction anti-feminist movement require greater intervention by public authorities commensurate with the challenges”.
A finding shared by Elvire Duvelle-Charles, herself a victim of cyberbullying. Without mentioning an increase in cases of online harassment, it stands out that cyberbullying actions are increasingly focused, that their perpetrators are very well organized upstream and that the mass phenomenon is accentuated: the same people come together to target the same target at the same time.
The author notes in particular the insufficient penal response. “The perpetrators see that they will not be convicted for what they continue with their cyberbullying.” Elvire Duvelle-Charles wants “for justice to convict more, for social networks to facilitate the missions of investigators and do a real job of moderation”.
When she read the report, she was sadly “not surprised” by the finding. She points out that after MeToo, “as women’s rights are about to gain ground and politicians take over the issue, backlash is multiplying.” She takes as an example the decline of the debate on the right to abortion in Europe, a sign of “a reaction well established,” he continues.
Cyberbullying follows violence in real life. According to a study by the association Feminisms against cyberbullying, 72% of the victims affirm that the cyberviolence continued in person.
Source: BFM TV
