Young activists meet with social media companies to combat online abuse.
Over the past few months, 15 young activists from all over the world have repeatedly met with representatives of the Facebook group on the topic of digital violence through the children's rights organization Plan International. In so-called “Girls Get Equal Listening Sessions” they successfully campaigned for better protection of girls and young women from abuse on social platforms. The social media company, which also includes Instagram and WhatsApp, called on the girls to suggest additional languages to include in its content moderation. The aim is to represent the variety of cultures and contexts in which girls and young women experience abuse on social media. The forms of abuse range from physical threats to cyberstalking to sending pornographic photos.
In addition, the platforms have committed to continuing to hire qualified employees from underrepresented groups, which in this context also includes young women. Your input is particularly important for the further development of products, programs, practices and policies. One of the activists was also invited by Facebook to continue supporting the platform with regard to the digital safety of girls and women. Hiring young women in content policy and moderation was among the priorities cited by the young activists as they entered face-to-face conversations with Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Cindy Southworth, Director of Women's Safety for Facebook: “Hearing directly from a diverse group of young women from around the world about the gender-based abuse and safety issues they experience in their different contexts helps us adapt our work. We want to continue this work to create a safe place for girls and young women to express themselves freely.”
After launching Plan International's #FreeToBeOnline campaign in October 2020, the social media company held a series of listening sessions with 15 girls and young women from around the world. The study of the same name by Plan International, “Free to be online?”, with 14,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 25 in 22 countries, showed that more than half of the girls had already been harassed online and one in five no longer used social media or used significantly less.
Sarah Carson, Plan International's Youth, Movements & Campaigns Manager, said: “Digital violence is a serious issue, it silences the voices of girls and young women and causes great harm. Girls who are threatened, stalked or abused online need to know that they can report it to the platforms. That they are listened to. And that measures are taken and the perpetrators are held accountable. We're glad it helped the platforms get immediate feedback from these girls from all different backgrounds. In this way, the approach to the safety of girls and women on the Internet can be further strengthened. We look forward to continuing to build on this.”
17-year-old Ayumi from Japan, who took part in the Girls Get Equal Listening Sessions: “Before the sessions I didn't have too high hopes because these are big companies and I didn't know how much real exchange was possible. But we had constructive discussions. It was a real dialogue.”
The 21-year-old law student Kim from Germany also had a positive assessment after the listening sessions: “For me it was a very good feeling that we were really listened to. This also gave me a feeling of strength. I personally believe that there needs to be a lot more communication about gender-based violence. Many people don't really know what that is, they dismiss it and say: “Everyone gets insulted from time to time. But that's not it. Much more needs to be done about this.”
Article image: By Teerawit Chankowet / Shutterstock.com
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )