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Social media and threats against women journalists

How states use social media to target exiled women human rights defenders

Social media should invest in special programs for high-risk targets such as women human rights defenders in exile or in the diaspora. These women are targeted through digital transnational repression by states or state affiliated agents. They face not only the same digital threats as men human rights defenders, but also gender-specific forms of online harassment, abuse, and intimidation. 

These are conclusions from a research report called “No Escape. The Weaponization of Gender for the Purpose of Digital Transnational Repression.”

Social media should also research and publish how state actors abuse social media platforms and share such data with independent researchers, the report says summarising actions needed.

The report comprises experiences of 85 women exiled human rights defenders originating from 24 countries of origin living in 23 host countries. The report is published by The Citizen lab at the University of Toronto.

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“These threats lead to disproportionate harms that range from professional setbacks, stigmatisation, and social isolation to the erosion of intimate relationships, profound emotional distress, and psychological trauma.” 

“States have the resources and political will to engage in invasive surveillance or mount coordinated online defamation and harassment campaigns that can leave severe impacts on the psychosocial wellbeing and professional career of targets.” 

“Further, they are also likely to act upon online threats against an exiled human rights defender, for instance by harassing, detaining, or even killing her family in her home country, inciting regime loyalists and chauvinist groups in the diaspora, or sending hired thugs to physically assault her.” 

“Finally, states are harder to hold to account due to the fact that, contrary to individuals or companies engaging in online violence against women, they may benefit from immunity from civil proceedings in domestic courts”, the report says.

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Among the report’s key findings:

  • Activists are digitally targeted using a range of tools and techniques including social media surveillance, hacking of electronic devices or social media accounts, online harassment and disinformation, and the use of false or private information to discredit them. 
  • Perpetrators, as identified by respondents, include government actors, state-backed trolls, inauthentic accounts, regime supporters, and other diaspora members with chauvinist and misogynistic ideas. z Gendered dimensions of online threats and attacks 
  • Women were exposed to gendered online attacks and threats that included sexual slurs, harassment, vulgar comments on social media platforms, messages with detailed sexual fantasies, rape threats, and attacks related to targets’ personal lives which reflected profoundly patriarchal ideas and attempted to deny women the ability to speak up on political and social issues.
  • Threats typically targeted women human rights defenders who were in a position to mobilise international attention, causing authoritarian governments reputational damage and increased external scrutiny. 
  • Host state authorities continue to provide insufficient support to respondents. This protection gap is even larger for women targeted with gender-based threats from state actors in their countries of origin because law enforcement often lacks an understanding of the political motivation for such attacks and the necessary gender and racial sensitivity required to help victims of online abuse. 
  • As a result, many research participants doubted the benefits of reporting incidents to the police in their country of residence.
  • Social media platforms’ content moderation often failed to detect and prevent online abuse, particularly outside the context of English-speaking communities. 
  • Some research respondents reported having their accounts taken over or blocked by false mass reports. They often felt left alone as platforms were unresponsive. 
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