Fighting for safe spaces

Anonymity is both a boon and a bane for online life, but one cannot deny that it as well as other features of the Internet, confers a certain degree of power. And as with other forms of power, this brings out the worst in those with weaker moral principles. As the Internet becomes a ubiquoitous and essential part of everyday life, the damage wrought by those who would use it for harmful ends extends far beyond that of any virtual world. While there will always be those who insist otherwise, what happens online has never been separate from the “real” world – and as the influence of the Internet grows, the damage that can be done with a simple click of the mouse scales exponentially as well.

The Internet has become a very large part of Filipino life. In fact, Filipinos became the top social media users in the world for the last three years. The Philippines also ranked 6th in countries with the largest number of active Facebook users. The Internet has become one of the principal public spaces where we can connect, build communities, and share resources and knowledge.

But any space is also a territory – and just as with physical land, there will always be those who would claim it as their own property. The continuum of violence against women that is committed offline has likewise found a home in the realm of websites, apps and social media.

It’s not only women active in public spheres that are being attacked online – any woman seems to be fair game, even the young: The 2016 National Baseline Survey on Violence Against Children reported that 43.8 percent of children aged 13-18 experienced what they dubbed as cyber violence. Even when a woman was with someone who purported to love her, the danger persisted – I know of several instances of men being caught sharing nude photos of their girlfriends in private Viber groups, and of jilted lovers who post compromising images of their exes in what is called “revenge porn.”

This kind of abuse causes real and irreparable harm to women, not in spite of being online, but because this abuse is online. Online abusers are able to rapidly recruit additional harassers (or assume different identities in order to appear as a legion), they are able to clutter search terms related to their targets in order to make them less ideal hires for image-conscious companies, they can make private images or information public on the Internet in a way that it is almost impossible to completely erase, permanently tarnishing a woman’s reputation.

The impact of such abuse can destroy lives. The news has been rife with suicides that were at some level caused by online abuse, whether this be ordinary teenagers or South Korean pop stars. The hatred found online can be yet another source of stress for a generation that already has so much to be anxious about. According to the World Health Organization, the suicide rate amongst Filipinos rose for both men and women during the period of 2000-2016, with the rate of women nearly doubling from 1.8-2.3%. These statistics do not reflect the number of suicide attempts, which is estimated to be much higher.

Even for women with the mettle to weather such abuse, the sheer volume of attacks can still achieve an important victory for the abusers: to make the simple presence of a woman on the Internet into a monumentally tiring, draining, and anxious endeavour. They force women to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy dealing with abuse, blocking accounts, sending reports, double-checking their privacy settings so nothing leaks to their stalkers. They pressure women to simply stop participating in online life, throwing up their arms in justified frustration and saying that it is not worth the abuse it brings. And for each woman that does that, the abusers are emboldened, and the Internet becomes one step closer to joining the ranks of dark alleys and red light districts: spaces where women should be absent “for their own good.”

There is nothing these abusers would want more than to render women silent.

Fat chance.

Thanks to the women leading the advocacy, there have been positive movements in the legal sphere to combat online harassment. Republic Act No. 9262, or the “Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004” (Anti-VAWC Act) is broad enough to cover on-line harassment that causes psychological or emotional stress to a woman who is one’s wife, former wife or someone one has had a sexual or dating relationship with, or a common child. Also, with the enactment of Republic Act No. 11313, otherwise known as the “Safe Spaces Act,” women have been given additional tools to fight back against online abuse. House Bill No. 5869, or the “Expanded Violence Against Women Act” (“E-VAWC”), which has been approved on the committee level, also seeks to amend the Anti-VAWC Act by including electronic violence against women and their children in the coverage of the law.

But the efforts of the government cannot stop at legislation. Worldwide, male-dominated law enforcement has been one of the weak links in efforts to combat online harrassment, either because the members refuse to see what happens online as being serious enough to merit their involvement, or because they lack the proper training to effectively track down or enforce the applicable laws. Gender-sensitivity and  information and communications training above and beyond what is usually provided has to be required for those who are unable to deal with online harrassment complaints effectively and with empathy. Even more than additional laws, it is this additional training which will make a difference.

Time and time again, women have proven that they will make themselves heard. We will not avoid dangerous spaces – we will invade them, cleanse them, and push the monsters away from the places where we belong.

But women can and should be supported in this fight. The Internet is a space where women are, a space where women have a right to be, and thus it is a space where the rights of women must be protected. It is the duty of the government, and of each and every one of us, to ensure this is so.