Online gender-based violence emerges from
misogyny in physical spaces and the cultural norms that guide our lives. Accepted forms of gender-based violence include in-person contact such as:
intimate partner violence,
street harassment,
rape, and others described in
violence against women. All of these have resulted in the creation of online forms of gender-based violence. Other causes of violence include the practices of
online communities and lack of regulations that address gender-specific harassment and violence in these communities.
Cultural The societal acceptance of norms that are deemed 'misogynistic' has a large impact on the prevalence of gender-based violence online. Cultural norms and beliefs are carried from physical communities into online spaces by actors who engage in this behavior in person or who already agree with misogynist ideas. People who engage in physical
violence against women also are likely to engage in online forms of violence. Through cultural causes, scholars claim that rather than technology creating violence online, it simply provides a new platform which users adapt to suit their desired action, some of which may include acts such as
doxing,
threatening, or
stalking women. Culture also can influence the popularity of violent activity against women when these behaviors are perpetrated or normalized by celebrities. This is also true when acts of gender violence are normalized against female celebrities and public figures. These cultural causes can have large or small impacts depending on the identity of the victim or the context. For instance, acts of gender-based violence may be more common in fields such as
politics where strong ideologies about
women's roles and
misogyny are already present. This would include cases where the victim is working in politics or the threats and violent behavior came as a response to a political post.
Algorithmic Although cultural norms are one cause of gender violence that can attract some actors to perpetrate these behaviors,
online algorithms and behavior can bring about another factor that causes violent behavior. Public comments on
social media applications such as
Twitter and
Facebook can lead to other users agreeing with and adding their own additional comments. In cases of online harassment, these additional users' actions are caused when the original threat or
internet troll comment is perceived as acceptable or when they become normalized and more common in the user's feed. Cases where the violence is instigated and grows because of perceptions of
lawlessness as well as cases where online algorithms are responsible for the growth in harassment are both examples of how gender-based violence can be instigated online.
Structural Some forms of gender-based violence online are caused by the availability of online spaces for communities with misogynistic and violent ideas about women. Systems which provide online formats such as
Reddit or Tor can often become popular among groups with violent ideas or who would like to remain anonymous. Anonymous online spaces allow subcultures like
incels to grow. In many of these spaces, misogyny and
rape fantasies are commonly discussed and these spaces can teach individuals that violent acts and behavior is acceptable. In some cases, incel forums have had a role in encouraging violent behavior among members. The spread of violent and gendered rhetoric is not isolated to one
subculture and can be
normalized and taught in a variety of groups. Structural inequalities that exist at the core of technological landscapes reproduce discriminate practices geared towards women. Women are being kept offline because of the arguably unsafe digital field that has been cultivated through misogynistic, aggressive, and threatening practices. Schemas that classify women as less valuable generators of knowledge and less relevant actors in social spaces result in knowledge gaps online through the generation of feelings of unsafe spaces online for women to participate. Trends of women and individuals of low socio-economic status producing less content online poses a threat to the democratization of the internet.
On Wikipedia Despite its status as the most participatory site on the internet, Wikipedia perpetrates these inequalities and does not serve as a safe knowledge outlet for women. The exacerbation of
knowledge gaps harms women by limiting their capacity to contribute to the digital world and prevents
social mobility through the lack of access to information regarding female-generated information and biographies. Reports of women claiming that editing Wikipedia articles is something that they fear is a critical component of gender-based violence online.
Women in Red, a group of editors committed to improving structural inequalities on Wikipedia through the creation of female generated content, describes how efforts for female publication are challenged by being flagged as non-notable and thus nominated for deletion.
Gender inequality on Wikipedia is also exemplified through the reluctance of female editors to edit existing pages. Studies have found that male editors overwhelmingly populate the percentage of Wikipedia page editors at approximately 70-80%. Issues of safety are relevant in this conversation as the small proportion of women who do participate in these edits feel pressured to reside within the "quiet corners" of Wikipedia as a personal precaution. This implies that women choose to integrate their edits within topics and pages that are not prone to
harassment by other editors. == Impact ==