{"id":60298,"date":"2022-11-22T11:10:29","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T09:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/violencies-masclistes-digitals-implicacions-del-seu-abordatge-en-el-marc-dels-circuits-de-violencia-masclista\/"},"modified":"2023-02-13T14:49:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T12:49:59","slug":"online-gender-based-violence-implications-of-tackling-it-within-the-framework-of-gender-based-violence-circuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/online-gender-based-violence-implications-of-tackling-it-within-the-framework-of-gender-based-violence-circuits\/","title":{"rendered":"Online gender-based violence: implications of tackling it within the framework of gender-based violence circuits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our society has become a digital society. The Internet, social networks, mobile phones, Wi-Fi, computers and a whole range of information and communication technologies (ICT) [1]<\/a>1 \u2014 When talking about ICT, it is increasingly common to refer to relationship, information and communication technologies, incorporating technologies focused on social relationships, in order to stress the importance that this dimension has taken on in recent years, especially regarding the impact of social networks.\n<\/span><\/span> are increasingly present, to the point where the distinction between the online and offline environment is losing meaning. Technology is increasingly becoming an intermediary element in study, work, and business with companies and administrations, communication and, above all, the way we relate to friends, family, colleagues, and our partners and\/or other sex-affective relationships, especially in the case of young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social networks and ICT (relationship, information and communication technologies) have allowed women, LGTBIQ+ people, and feminists to create networks, articulate actions, give visibility to our discourses and demand gender-related changes. In fact, the different cyberfeminisms have positioned themselves as an engine of optimistic development of the digital society, promoting a feminist technosocial repoliticisation which criticises the current state of affairs [2]<\/a>2 \u2014 Cruells, Eva; Hache, \u00c0lex; Verg\u00e9s, N\u00faria (2017). \u00abCiberfeminismos 2017\u00bb. \u00a1Feminismos! Eslabones fuertes del cambio social. No. 6, pp. 127-136.\n<\/span><\/span>. At the same time, they have condemned the increase in online gender-based violence and have developed strategies to address it [3]<\/a>3 \u2014 See:\n\nLuchadoras (2017). \u00abLa Violencia en L\u00ednea Contra las Mujeres en M\u00e9xico. Report to the UN Rapporteur on Violence Against Women\u00bb [available online]. Mexico: United Nations.\n\n \n\nJane, Emma A (2017). \u00abFeminist flight and fight responses to gendered cyberhate\u00bb. In: Segrave, Marie; Vitis, Laura. Gender, technology and violence. London: Routledge, pp. 45-61.\n\n \n\nVerg\u00e9s Bosch, N\u00faria; Donestech (2018). \u00abKit Contra les viol\u00e8ncies masclistes on-line\u00bb [available online].\n\n \n\nFern\u00e1ndez, June; Fern\u00e1ndez, M. \u00c1ngeles; Momoitio, Andrea. (coord.) (2019) \u00abMonogr\u00e1fico violencias digitales\u00bb. Pikara Magazine.\n\n \n\nVera Balanza, Mar\u00eda Teresa (2021). \u00abFeminismo, misoginia y redes sociales: Presentaci\u00f3n del monogr\u00e1fico\u00bb. Investigaciones feministas, No. 12.1, pp. 1-4.\n\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The digital world is not neutral, but is crossed by cisheteropatriarchal dynamics deeply intertwined with capitalism and the colonial project. Recently, the regeneration of the overtly misogynistic and LGBTIQ-phobic global neoconservative agenda has gone hand in hand with the intensification of hate, anti-rights and anti-feminist groups on the Internet, often operating in what is known as the manosphere<\/em>, with a leading role in some online violence [4]<\/a>4 \u2014 See:\n\nHanash Mart\u00ednez, Macarena (2020). \u00abLa ciberresistencia feminista a la violencia digital: Sobreviviendo a Gamergate. Debats\u00bb. Revista de Cultura, Poder i Societat, No. 134(2), pp. 89-106.\n\n \n\nBonet i Mart\u00ed, Jordi (2021). \u00abLos antifeminismos como contramovimiento: una revisi\u00f3n bibliogr\u00e1fica de las principales perspectivas te\u00f3ricas y de los debates actuales\u00bb. Teknokultura. Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales, vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 61-71.\n\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online gender-based violence occurs as a manifestation of discrimination and the situation of gender inequality within the framework of a system of cisheteropatriarchal power relations, and which are produced, distributed and\/or amplified in digital environments and\/or through ICT [5]<\/a>5 \u2014 For example, hate speech on Twitter, threats through messaging, WhatsApp, or accessing our devices without permission, using social networks to control or harass, sharing or publishing intimate photographs without consent, among other forms.\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online gender-based violence can occur specifically or combined with other face-to-face forms of violence. Digital environment features make it difficult to approach and amplify its impact: anonymity and replicability, which allow the incorporation of multiple attackers, the elimination of geographical limits, the difficulties of being forgotten and the elimination of digital content, as well as the possibility of repetition 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Online gender-based violence occurs in a digital world defined by large transnational technological platforms with a profit motive, with opaque business models based on the exploitation of our data and with very little or non-existent public control and regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impacts of digital violence can be diverse and seriously affect our lives, both in terms of mental and physical health, to the point that they have sometimes led to rape or suicide [6]<\/a>6 \u2014 European Parliament (2018). Cyber Violence and Hate Speech Online against Women [available online]. Committee on Women\u2019s Rights and Gender Equality.\n<\/span><\/span>. They can have social effects, generating isolation and exclusion from our relational networks, and impair educational, labour and economic opportunities when they make training or work impossible or difficult. They also affect freedom of expression and movement online, expelling us from or affecting our ability to participate in public debate, while making it difficult to generate friendly and safe narratives and making us vulnerable to other types of violence [7]<\/a>7 \u2014 Igareda Gonz\u00e1lez, Noelia; Pascale, Adri\u00e1n; Cruells, Marta (2019). Les Ciberviol\u00e8ncies masclistes [available online]. Barcelona: Government of Catalonia.\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is still a lack of systematic, public and up-to-date data on online gender-based violence. 11% of European women (9 million) had been victims of violence on the Internet (via the web, e-mail or mobile phones), while 70% of those who had suffered online gender-based violence had also suffered it from their partners and ex-partners [8]<\/a>8 \u2014 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014). Violence against women: an EU-wide survey. Main Results [available online]. Viena: EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).\n<\/span><\/span>. According to the most recent data, 15.7% of Catalan women have suffered violence through social networks, a figure that rises to 44.3% among the youngest women [9]<\/a>9 \u2014 Analysis of Catalonia’s data from the 2019 Violence Against Women Macro Survey promoted by the Spanish Government Delegation against Gender-based Violence.\n<\/span><\/span> \u2015a group that is also particularly affected by violent digital images of a sexual nature [10]<\/a>10 \u2014 Donoso V\u00e1zquez Trinidad; Rebollo Catal\u00e1n, \u00c1ngeles (2018). Violencias de g\u00e9nero en entornos virtuales. Barcelona: Octaedro.\n<\/span><\/span>\u2015. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Online gender-based violence can occur specifically or combined with other face-to-face forms of violence. Digital environment features such as anonymity amplify its impact<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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In addition, online gender-based violence particularly affects racialized women, LGTBIQ+ people and women with functional diversity, as well as feminist activists and prominent women of public relevance who become targets of digital attacks, for example, female journalists, academics, artists, technologists, gamers, athletes or politicians [11]<\/a>11 \u2014 Crosas Rem\u00f3n, In\u00e9s; Medina-Bravo, Pilar (2019). \u00abCiberviol\u00e8ncia a la xarxa. Noves formes de ret\u00f2rica disciplin\u00e0ria en contra del feminisme\u00bb. Papers. Revista de Sociologia, No. 1, pp. 47-73.\n<\/span><\/span>. As for the aggressors, they are mainly men. Although they may act anonymously, in many cases they are people known to the victim (partners, ex-partners, colleagues from work or school, etc.), albeit assaults by strangers are also very relevant, especially in the framework of anti-feminist discourses and attacks on women with public relevance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The legal framework of online gender-based violence<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

One of the main new changes of Law 17\/2020, of 22 December, amending Law 5\/2008, on the right of women to eradicate gender-based violence, is precisely the introduction of the digital dimension in addressing sexist violence<\/p>\n\n\n\n