The Role of Social Media and Online Platforms (Technology) in Gender-Based Violence (GBV)

As the world grapples with the ever-rising gender-based violence in the local, regional, and global context, in these times of COVID-19 and Social Distancing, how well do we understand the platforms that fuel this violence; platforms whose use has been increased significantly by COVID-19 measures of Social Distancing/ Physical Distancing? Can we/ should we target these platforms to address GBV even as we wait for ‘normal’ platforms to address GBV?

Let’s look at the role of Technology, specifically Social Media and Online Platforms, in fueling GBV during COVID-19 period. Let’s not be quick to believe that not everyone is on Social Media or using Online platforms but remember that the simpler and more available technology such as WhatsApp and analogue phones are available for a significant percentage of the world’s population. Even in some of the rural areas, there will be at least one person who has WhatsApp on his/her phone; at least a simple phone that can send/ messages or broadcast at least one local radio/ TV station; at least some form print media (old or current).

Wondering what the connection between Social Media/ Online Platforms and Old/ Traditional Media is?

Whether we like it or not, acknowledge it or not, Social Media and Online Platforms are the main media and the most preferred platform for news, interaction, recreation/ entertainment, work, etc. today, thanks to COVID-19 and the social distancing measures that have made these platforms a necessity rather than a part-time luxury. Even people who were not previously online, or they had minimal time to spend online, are discovering and using one form of online platform or another for different things. Even as some people only trust and use a few platforms, other platforms can still make enough noise to catch the attention of the trusted media.

Understanding Technology

Simple Texting technology (SMS), phone calls, email services, Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, Reddit, Stumbleupon -Mix-, Tumbr), Websites, Blogs, Vlogs, YouTube, Vimeo Viusasa, Mainstream TV and Radio Media (CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, NTV, DW, Citizen, KTN…), etc. deliver content faster, and to more people, than traditional print or mailing system. This means that as many people as those who access content on any one platform can circulate it as fast to more people. Social Media platforms make it easier to grow the magnitude of any content through ‘like’, ‘share’, ‘retweet’, ‘copy-paste’, screenshot, corruption of content through meme/ joke creation, and the ‘forward’ feature. WhatsApp carries the day with ‘forwarded messages’; content is picked from any platform and forwarded without much effort. This real-time sharing elicits real-time reactions and hype.

Ever wondered why you visited an online platform (YouTube, Google, Yahoo, email provider, etc.) and there are News you could care less about and you wonder “why am I seeing this”? or “why is this recommended to me?” Wonder no more. Remember when I mentioned how content is shared from platform to platform, well Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) pick up on the trending keyword and they provide information related to that keyword to Internet users across the globe. As such, any person of any social status will be presented with the trending topics whether those topics/ keywords are relevant to him or not.

Social Media Virality: Going Viral

The virality (going viral means spreading quickly and rapidly across multiple platforms from a single source) feature of content, thanks to Social Media and Online Platforms, translates to publicity that wasn’t anticipated and so are the impacts of such content. Content (comprehensive or captions, facts or fake) that is published/ captured on one platform can be spread across multiple platforms (as is, or with edits) as people share, screenshot, make memes, etc. of that content.

Impacts of Going Viral

The Upside of Going Viral

Going viral is a good thing for brands that are looking for publicity or for good courses (such as the small white boy waiting at the doorstep to give snacks to his best friends the black men who operate a ‘garbage truck”. In Kenya, a few weeks ago, a 4-year-old girl child was captured in a beautiful photo in her rural setting. The photo had a few social media users ‘liking/ loving’ the photo and sharing it with their friends. A few days later, the photo was trending, and people started tagging Coca Cola to make the girl an Ambassador of Coca Cola (probably pressurizing the big company to take a specific course- as happens in other cases). Suffice to say, the photo (and edited versions of it) made enough rounds on the online platform that it was picked up by mainstream radio and TV platforms and now she (and her parents and grandparents) are being quoted on the national recommendations of how to engage and take care of children during COVID-19.

Going viral is also great for seeking social justice; a single voice may not on one small platform but if the issue goes viral, the whole world learns about and it could birth massive support or revolutions. The George Floyd murder may have been the death of one person, but having been picked by multiple platforms, a significant percentage of the global population is not just aware of it but also making changes. Deeper issues are being addressed.

The Downside of Going Viral

Going viral can be a nightmare for individuals, groups or people and a wider society. Simple mistakes, wrong captions, wrong references, etc. can be brought to public light and with the publicity comes judgement and all forms of cyber-bullying. Cyber bullying, more often than not, spills over to real life as some ‘online’ bullies physically track the victims or attack other people in their sick versions of ‘avenging’ or ‘teaching the rest of the society’ a lesson on behalf of the victim. The going viral of a single thing can cause a social uprising.

The going viral of something has a way of influencing people in one way or another. While the public knowledge of something gets people more aware of it, the knowledge can enlighten and empower some sections of a society while disempowering another group. Different factions may crop up to defend themselves and fight the revealed information (which they deem makes them look bad), while others may cheer and enforce the message. Some people sit on the fence and use the now ‘factified’ stereotypes to take advantage of others when it suits them.

Using the gender lens on multiple platforms calls for looking at the platforms where gender issues are paraded instead of looking at the GBV causes (or potential solutions) only. It calls for seeing beyond the message; looking at the message at the face value, the intended meaning, and the context in which it is used, hence, how it is likely to be received and owned/disowned by the recipients.

As we use Online Platforms, let us be cautious of what we ‘share’ as that message may mean something different to the person(s) the message is shared with.

Socia Media and bloggers do not mince their words or ‘filter’ the message. Content (memes, jokes, captions, text, screenshots, etc.) reads as it is. It could have the most beautiful message in the world wrapped in strong words that would scare a person in first instance. Or it could be the most innocent-looking content with loaded hate-speech.

Social media and some blogging platform (especially gutter press that thrive on sensationalism) do not (most times) give the complete/ real message. They can share just a caption, and seeing that there are lots of those captions/ memes, etc., their users don’t always have the time, desire or curiosity to look for the entire message; they just believe or resent (depending on the way their personal perception of the message) and move on to the next story.

Abuse of and Dis-empowerment of Men: Done by women, fellow men, family, neighbors, communities, Institutions…

• Physically: Insult his physique (skin color, height, body build, race, etc.), masculinity, etc.
• Economically: Attack his past, present or perceived future financial situation and wealth, exploit his finances, exploit his skills, attack and derail his dreams, etc.
• Sexual and Reproductive Health: Insult his ‘performance/ prowess’, insult his siring only a certain number of children (none, too few, or too many), insult him by assuming his weakness based on the sex of his children (thump-chesting by people who have male children an insulting those who have female children), insult his socialization skills with women or other men (based on gender stereotypes), denial of conjugal rights, etc.
• Emotional: Control his socialization with successful or unsuccessful people, insult his family, insult his ‘dreams as grandiose or too small, insult him with being too good or too bad, insult his personality in the name of men should not be cowards, men shouldn’t listen to other men or women, men should be stubborn and unruly, etc.
• Spiritual: Insult his spiritual status as too much or too little, insult his choice of deity/ higher power, insult his decisions based on spirituality

Abuse of And Dis-empowerment of Women: Done by men, fellow women, family, neighbors, communities, Institutions…

The viral content on social media highly support or propose the following measures on how to dis-empower  women

• Physically: control her dressing (modest or exposed based on the perceived role), attack her physique, or hype her and then bring her down, physical abuse, etc.
• Economically: deny her skills’ acquisition, limit opportunities for her to use those skills, inject more distractions to ensure she doesn’t use her skills to the maximum (hence no growth, promotion, etc.), low/ no pay for same skills and jobs, reduce her to domestic chores (under-appreciated and un-paying), make her doubt her worth if she earns more or is trying to be economically stable, etc.
• Sexual and Reproductive Health: Define her success by her having a man in her life, blame her for all reproductive problems, sleep with her and then discredit her (discredit everything she is and does by ‘blaming her sexuality’), impregnate the ambitious woman to ‘contain’ her, believe you know her by being intimate with her, accuse her of getting ahead in life by sleeping with people in power/ or stepping on other women…
• Emotional: Control her social interaction (minimize of block it), discredit her publicly, label her ‘independent woman’ (a stereotype for taking advantage of her on every sphere without taking responsibility or giving back to her in any way), ‘discipline’ her using inhumane tactics (punish her like a child using insults, ghost, second-guess or man-splain), insist on making decisions for her in the name of ‘women need a firm hand and a leader), etc.
• Spiritual: Insist she is a lesser being, insist only men (or other women of different societal standings) are the deity and their opinion is more valid coming from them than her…
• Social stratification and discrimination/ adverse treatment by age, background, birth order, marital status, number of children, background, physique, financial status, sexuality, work, etc.

The Bigger Picture of Such Widely-Shared Messages

While these statements and mindsets may sound ‘normal/ okay’ or ‘ridiculous’, depending on each reader’s personal perception, and while we may think that people should know better and not be affected by such, they (statements) go around long and wide enough to shape the minds of young people, change the minds of adults, and reinforce stereotypes. Unfortunately, these ‘views/ perceptions’ may dictate (even to those who know better) how to behave to defend themselves or subdue others. Some people take these statements as recommendations (for future reference) on how to ‘deal with people based on their sex’ and whereas they may be wrong, their popularity will justify their implementation at the time. With time, these social media, non-serious messages, are made into many people’s reality.

How many times have we seen a battered or murdered woman and before anyone can investigate phrases like “these women deserve to die for ‘eating’ men’s money” or “she deserved to be cheated on/ thrown out, etc. because she is ‘empowered’”make the headlines.

How many times have men been gravely violated and the only thing that people focus on are phrases like “well, these men have been killing and abusing women for all eternity, it’s time they got a dose of their own medicine”.

People reinforce each others’ beliefs and practices whether good or bad, through the social media and online platforms where people have been thrown by the forced social distancing that’s been brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. When statements go around long and far enough, and those statement have thousands if not millions of reactions, some people are bound to believe them or at least take a side. Some people, in assuming that what is trending will automatically translate to reality, already start devising ways of countering such. In some instances, the ‘ways of dealing with stereotypes’ are good and practical, and in other cases, those measures create new/ improve abusive ways.

NB: The use of social Media and other Online platforms is addictive. An aspect that may contribute to the increasing GBV cases, in addition to the content itself, is the excessive times people are now using on the platforms instead of taking the time to do constructive things or help each other around the house. A situation in which a person doesn’t pull his/ her weight around others who are forced to take up his/ her roles because s/he is always on his/ her gadgets (not working or doing selfcare) while other people) will breed GBV at some point.

Potential Measures of Addressing GBV During COVID-19

• Embrace social media, online platforms and other unconventional media instead of vilifying the same every chance we get. These platforms are not going away any time soon; the more we attack these platforms, the more resistance we get. Besides, people find ways of making these platforms work for the greater good.
• In relation to point one above, we should tailor content that addresses GBV for these platform. Precise, Factual, Capturing (not sensationalized) titles and Images, etc.
• Using the Force Field Analysis Tool, Research and know the right audience, the right influencers, audience’s language, audience’s peak time on the specific platform, the invisible audience (the audience represented by your visible audience and the audience that supports/ opposes your audience in the sidelines), etc