Since January 2, Lavanya Ballal Jain, a spokesperson for the Congress party, has become the target of online trolling after a heated TV debate with BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla. The incident occurred during a live interview where Poonawalla made comments on Jain’s name and mockingly referred to her as “Lavanya BJ”, which lead to a sharp exchange between the two. In the interview itself, Lavanya pointedly asked Poonawalla to not make sly comments against her name.

“Do not make vulgar inferences, I’m very aware of the social media team talking about my name,” Lavanya had said while asking the host of the TV interview to ‘control’ her guest during the debate.

In response to her remark, Poonawalla could be seen smiling shamelessly.

The controversy further escalated when Poonawalla posted a video clip of the TV interview on his social media account, questioning why Jain was triggered by his factual statements. The said video had been captioned by Poonawalla as “Don’t know why Lavanya BJ was so triggered when I quoted facts!!”

The said post can be viewed here:

Don’t know why Lavanya BJ was so triggered when I quoted facts !! pic.twitter.com/Vi6KdfDfvr

— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) January 2, 2024

As the said post started getting wind, Lavanya took to social media to express her dismay and accused Poonawalla of insulting her name and religion during the TV interview. She referred to the BJP spokesperson as a ‘cheapster’ and urged him to refrain from making vulgar comments during interviews. In a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), Lavanya also claimed that Poonawalla was on the payroll of one of the richest Jain individuals, indirectly alluding to Gautam Adani.

“Abusing Jain’s while being on their payroll is a bj party habit. Your payroll comes from one of the richest (Jain) man on earth,” wrote Lavanya in her post.

The said post can be viewed here:

cheapster @Shehzad_Ind
You may think your antics are smart,but Mr.dimwit this comment is an insult to my religion.
Abusing Jain’s while being on their payroll is a bj party habit. Your payroll comes from one of the richest (Jain) man on earth.
Meanwhile your life is so pathetic… https://t.co/fahC9mCaB5

— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) January 3, 2024

As was expected, the comments made by Poonawalla led to opening of a flood gate of misogynistic and derogatory remarks against Lavanya. Following the TV debate, Lavanya was severely trolled online on social media platforms, particularly on X, where the hashtag #LavanyaBJ gained traction and was trending for hours on X. Since the hashtag contained a derogatory term, the online attacks against the Congress spokesperson were further intensified. It is essential to highlight here that Poonawalla did not only ask the misogynistic bullies to not harass Lavanya, but rather was gleeful about the said hashtag trending for hours on X. in his post, Poonawala wrote:

Lavanya BJ is still trending from last evening

Never knew initials will trend so much https://t.co/ly4nyWbnfe

— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) January 3, 2024

In another post later, he wrote “Now let’s move on from #LavanyaBJ – I know this isn’t in my or your control and its spontaneous outburst of people on SM towards the arrogance, ignorance of the congress spokesperson but let us now have the bigger heart & ignore her.”

The complete post can be accessed here:

Chalo guys

I think from now onwards the lesson has been learnt – World’s largest Democratic Party should not be called abbreviations that you yourself cannot handle.

Now let’s move on from #LavanyaBJ – I know this isn’t in my or your control & it’s spontaneous outburst of…

— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) January 4, 2024

Poonawala has also reposted posts from his profile on ‘X’ which contains the said derogatory hashtag and misogynistic remarks.

Some of the same are:

This video of shehzad poonawalla’s will never be not funny! Lavanya BJ should have thought twice before messing with him! Thoda research kar leti BTW –#LavanyaBJ is still trending pic.twitter.com/HBhhKbqOe8

— Mini (@perfectminz) January 3, 2024

You were simply brilliant @Shehzad_Ind !@LavanyaBallal you need to learn from Shehzad how to do thorough homework before assuming the role of party spokesperson.

If I were you, I would intern with Shehzad for at least three years, learn to do proper research, garner facts,… https://t.co/qwCyTgX1M2

— Madhu Purnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) January 4, 2024

Some examples of the social media harassment that she was subjected to is as follows:

Madam #LavanyaBJ finds it “cute and positive” when grownup men from her Party, scan her from top to bottom. But she accuses a male co-panellist of another party being disrespectful and vulgur when she fails to answer his simple question. Hypocrisy or shamelessness?? pic.twitter.com/3wKhItflCj

— Alpaca Girl (@Alpakanya) January 3, 2024

In support of “Lavanya BJ” #CongressParty has renamed the new Comedy show of #Pappu #RahulGandhi from BNY to BJ Nyay Yatra. #BharatJodoNyayYatra #Lavanya_BJ#LavanyaBJ pic.twitter.com/c5ryhWfP3s

— Ganesh (@me_ganesh14) January 4, 2024

Lavanya BJ aunty after successful BJ Yatra got healthy after their party diet.#LavanyaBJ pic.twitter.com/YuDqkfBYZB

— RamSavarkar Reddy (@TGDharmik) January 3, 2024

Lavanya BJ (ballal jain) at BJ (bharat jodo) yatra.#LavanyaBJ #istandwithLBJ ma’am. pic.twitter.com/Vyby2e7AkF

— ದ್ರಿಷತ್ ರಾವ್. (@drishatwarti) January 3, 2024

Lavanya responded to the said cyber harassment and attack strongly and did not let the remarks pass by. One of her post, responding to a troll, is as follows:

Dear troll,

You getting triggered won’t change the fact that you supported the rapists

Beyond that you are just prosaic clown #Yawn https://t.co/KH2h3rNeDl

— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) January 3, 2024

While many BJP supporters justified using the sexual innuendo against Lavanya by claiming that she herself refers to the BJP as the “BJ party”, she pointed that she had started using the word as a way to hit back at persistent trolling.

In view of the amount of harassment that Lavanya faced, many people, any some political leaders, stood in support of Lavanya. Supriya Shrinate, Chairperson Social Media & Digital Platforms and Member of the Congress Working Committee, took to ‘X’ to slam the bullies and express her anguish at the harassment that Lavanya was being subjected to. Calling the incident to be a “mob lynching of the worst kind, armed with sexual innuendo”, Shrinate wrote:

What has gone on for the last 48 hours is not just shameful harassment of @LavanyaBallal , it’s actually mob lynching of the worst kind, armed with sexual innuendo.

In any civilised world this organised attack is an offence.

It’s a new low even for the BJP’s official and…

— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) January 4, 2024

Mohan Kumaramangalam, Working President Tamilnadu Congress, also took to X to express his dismay and wrote:

I have never heard anyone use someone’s middle and last name’s initials to refer to them. Wonder why @Shehzad_Ind is so obsessed with BJs? Is his inordinate focus on the same the real reason for his rise in the BJ Party ? I have heard about stooping to conquer but kneeling to… https://t.co/bpcO9szOCL

— Mohan Kumaramangalam மோகன் குமாரமங்கலம் (@MKumaramangalam) January 3, 2024

Even today, more than two days after the incident, trolls were harassing her:

L BJ #LavanyaBJ

With filters. Without filter pic.twitter.com/hsCxPQTt6G

— ನಾಯಕಿ Nayakii (@nammsiem) January 5, 2024

This whole incident serves as a reminder as to how BJP leaders misbehave, and encourages others to demean women, especially if the woman is from an opposition party.

Related:

Wrestler Sakshi Malik quits wrestling as close aid of sexual harassment accused Brij Bhushan gets elected as president

Delhi Police on Brij Bhushan sexual harassment case: “Liable to be prosecuted and punished for sexual harassment, molestation and stalking”

Trolling, harassment of Dalit writer and activist, Shalin Maria Lawrence condemned: NWMI

The post Lavanya Ballal Jain, Congress spokesperson, subjected to online sexual harassment; incident motivated by BJP spokesperson appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a video that has gone viral on social media, Saini is seen addressing a gathering in Khatauli, Muzaffarnagar and saying “Modi Ji has fulfilled our dreams and it is visible as the entire country is beating drums to express their happiness. All bachelor BJP members who are eager to get married can go to Kashmir, and we have no problem with it. In fact, BJP’s Muslim activists should be happy as they can now get married to ‘gori’ (fair) Kashmiri girls.” Saini is infamous for his acutely misogynistic and patriarchal remarks. In February last year, he had said at a public function, “I have told my wife to keep producing more children, although she had told me that two were enough.” Predictably, the senior BJP leadership has done little to chastise its men.

Social media is also replete with these kinds of sexist posts where Kashmiri women are being objectified and revocation of article 370 is being celebrated as a pass to access these “beautiful” women. Apart from the public figures, common citizens have also not stayed behind in treating women as objects and celebrating the decision as a cue to get access to Kashmiri girls. A person named Deepak Kumar posted a photo of a girl in Kashmiri attire on his Twitter handle and captioned it as “Now I want to marry Kashmiri Muslim Girls #BalochistanIsNotPakistan Just kidding .” Another person named Shailendra Kumar posted on Twitter “Now Kashmiri girls can marry with handsome boys like me….” Utkarsh Dixit, another Twitter user wrote, “Me and my boys on the way to marry some Kashmiri girls.”

People also used another social media video app TikTok to spread their filthy, patriarchal messages on similar lines as Twitter. In one such video, three men are seen standing outside a shop in Delhi. One of them asks, “What are the benefits of removing Article 370?” “The tricolour will be waved in Kashmir, bhai your turn,” Ankit Jatav tells his friend. The friend, a young man in a black tee, thumps his chest and says, “Doosra, Jammu Kashmir ki lugai milegi humein” [Second, we will get a wife from Jammu Kashmir].” In another video, one of Jatav’s friends, a young man with coiffed hair, said, “Main toh chala Kashmir, mujhe Delhi main ladki nahin mil rahi hai (I am going to Kashmir, I am not getting women in Delhi).” Jatav has over 10,000 followers.

TikTok in particular is full of slightly desperate Hindu men asserting “victory” by claiming they can now “get girls” from Kashmir. This filth is being spread on every social media platform.

Instead of discussing the serious ramifications of this move, citizens including the powerful elites like the BJP MLA Saini chose to publicize their fantasies of getting hold of “beautiful” Kashmiri women and buying plots there. While the fate of Kashmiris after the revocation of its special status is vague, these memes and videos are a clear reflection of the patriarchal society we continue to live, where women are treated as mere objects which are to be married and owned. These sexist jibes are just another example of the gross misuse of extremely accessible social media platforms, with no mechanisms in place to keep a check on the breeding of hatred and misogyny.

Just a few days before the Modi government revoked article 370, Indian film actor Kamaal R Khan, who doesn’t miss a chance to say anything misogynistic, posted such a message on his official Twitter handle. The message read, “If government will withdraw #Article370 So many foreigners and Indians will be able to marry with Kashmiri girls to stay there. And Many people will buy property in Kashmir. Lots of foreigner investment will also come to Kashmir and Kashmir will get huge development.” After the decision was announced, Khan again took to Twitter to send out his marriage proposal. The tweet read, “Now, If any beautiful Kashmiri girl is ready to marry with me, then I am ready to buy a big bungalow there. Let’s live a beautiful life in the Jannat on the earth only.”
 
Related Articles:

1. Resolution on Kashmir Is Against Constitution and History!
2. Who is more ‘developed’: Jammu and Kashmir vis a vis the rest of India, some figures
3. I am choosing Kashmir: How a post on Article 370 became a Question about my Morality

The post How the abrogation of Article 370 has unleashed the great Indian misogynistic troll appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In a strongly worded press release NWMI says, “Over the course of the past few days, starting with a parody account of Republic TV that attributed a fake tweet to Ayyub in which she purportedly defended child rapists and supposedly said that Muslims were not safe in India, this campaign has shown no sign of abating.” Though AltNews proved that the account was fake, it was too late, as by then the fake tweet and its image had been shared thousands of times on Facebook and WhatsApp along with a Hindi translation of the fake tweet that was posted on April 22.

NWMI fears for Ayyub’s safety given how despite the deletion of the fake tweet and account, other fake tweets have been circulating along with videos and content with Ayyub’s morphed face, with exhortations to gang-rape. “In a classic case of ‘doxing’, her address and personal number have been made public, making her vulnerable to further abuse that could also become dangerous in the real world,” says NWMI. The press release further states, “This concerted, malicious misrepresentation and open intimidation as well as incitement to violence has serious implications for Rana Ayyub and, indeed, all journalists. It cannot but have a very real chilling effect on free speech and opinion. It is also in contravention of all laws in India concerning violence against women.” NWMI calls out politicians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to “rein in their followers who harass, abuse and threaten in their names.” It lists the following two demands:

• The NWMI demands that the Cyber-Crime cell of the Delhi Police take immediate steps to ensure safety for Rana Ayyub, identify the source/s of the threats and take stringent action against them.
• The NWMI further demands that social media platforms like Twitter take steps to distinguish parody accounts from real ones and intervene when the platform is used for hate speech and threats of violence.

Meanwhile Reporters Without Borders has also come out in support of Ayyub saying, “Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns an unprecedented week-old hate campaign on social networks against Indian freelance journalist Rana Ayyub and calls on the government and the New Delhi police to do whatever is necessary to protect her.”

The post Stop the Online Vilification of Rana Ayyub: NWMI appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Humans of Hindutva, a satirical Facebook page that lampooned extreme right wing groups for their ridiculous interpretation of religion and culture, has been shut down. The page administrator, who has always remained anonymous, posted the following parting message on his website satyanash.com :
“I’m quitting out of my own accord. I’ve not been banned or mass reported. I have recently received some threats to my life which I can’t take lightly. I am outnumbered, I live in a BJP state and come from a middle-class family with no political or police connections. I have no desire to end up like Gauri Lankesh or Afrazul Khan. I hope those who threatened me consider this as a victory and leave us alone. I have deleted the HOH page and will delete this website soon. Congratulations to Hindutva on winning this David vs Goliath fight.”

The page has been in the eye of the storm for making fun of right wing political leaders, spiritual gurus, the saffron brand of science and even the prime minister. Trolls would often get nasty in the comments section of some of the page’s wittiest posts.

Earlier in September, HoH had temporarily shut down as the administrator feared for his life in wake of journalist Gauri Lankesh’s murder. But following a strong show of strength and support from fans and followers, the page was back up. But this time, it looks like the page is gone for good.

The post Trolls and right wing terror win as Humans of Hindutva shuts down appeared first on SabrangIndia.

This article was first published by Waging Nonviolence.

Credit: Flickr/Atlas Social Media. Public Domain.

Online harassment is on the rise, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. While that may not seem surprising—since even the president of the United States regularly engages in it—researchers are, nevertheless, perplexed, given the many widespread efforts to combat the phenomenon.

An examination of these efforts, which have been the subject of several books in recent years, may yield a better understanding of not only what’s working and not working, but also what’s missing—namely an approach that relies more on individual and collective empowerment, as opposed to legal and police action.

Online harassment as a crime.
Danielle Keats Citron’s 2014 book “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace” is a comprehensive account of online harassment directed at women. Citron uses three case studies to illustrate the seriousness and seeming intractability of the problem. In one case, a woman was targeted by various anonymous individuals, perhaps including her university classmates, who spread horrendous lies about her, sending them to family, friends, her teachers and later her employers. The harassment continued for years.

A key theme in “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace” involves comparisons with sexual harassment and domestic violence. Decades ago, these were not seen as issues of importance. Sexual harassment was seen as something women at work just had to accept, and likewise domestic violence was invisible as a social issue. Then along came the feminist movement. Sexual harassment and domestic violence were given names, stigmatized as wrong and even contemptible, and criminalized by the passing of laws.

Citron says cyber harassment should be treated the same way. In all three forms of abuse, women and men can be victims, but women are much more likely to be targeted.

Citron is a lawyer with extensive experience with abuse online. She devotes considerable attention to legal remedies, but the overall message is that they are inadequate even when they can be brought to bear. Another avenue for redress is via complaint mechanisms provided by service providers. However, in many cases, harassers are anonymous and change their online identities. For example, on Twitter it’s possible to set up a new account within minutes, so shutting down the account of an abuser may provide only temporary relief.

Some targets of abuse go to the police, but this is usually disappointing, as many police do not understand the online world. For example, they fail to appreciate the importance of Twitter for some women’s work and how harassers can abuse the service. Police may suggest going offline to avoid the abuse, but this is unrealistic in an online world. It is like suggesting never going outside because of the risk of assault.

The misogyny of online abuse.
Emma Jane is an academic at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, where she researches online harassment of women. Before this, for two decades she was a well-known media commentator under the name Emma Tom. Before the internet, she and other female figures in the media were used to receiving hostile written letters. But something changed in the 1990s after she started adding her email address at the bottom of her newspaper columns. The abuse she received in response to her columns became more insistent, graphic and voluminous. She started saving all this abuse, not knowing what to make of it.

In her research, inspired by her own experience and based on interviews and other evidence, she is quite clear that online harassment targeted at women is intended to tear them down and drive them off the internet. She has written several academic articles about the phenomenon and a 2017 book titled “Misogyny Online: A Short (and Brutish) History.”

Jane addresses the frequency of online abuse, its gendered features, the weakness of the rationales for doing it, the terrible consequences for targets and the failure of institutional channels to address it. She terms the inadequacy of police and service providers to address abuse as an “epic fail”—Jane has a delightful turn of phrase and manner of plain-speaking.

Unlike most other commentators, Jane gives many examples of some of the worst abuse received by women. That is why the subtitle of her book refers to a “brutish” history: to read examples of abuse can be disturbing even when you are not the target. By presenting graphic examples, Jane challenges the usual dismissals of this form of harassment as just a normal part of the internet. To get a feeling for the sort of abusive messages women receive, visit Random Rape Threat Generator (note: this is explicit and confronting).

Jane also gives special attention to academic work in the area, castigating scholars for not addressing an important topic or, when they do, not taking the abuse seriously. For example, incorporating rape and death threats in the category of “trolling” reduces their seriousness.

The problem with rationalizing abuse.
Bailey Poland is a writer and editor who became interested in cybersexism and wrote the book “Haters: Harassment, Abuse and Violence Online” published in 2016. It is a comprehensive, scholarly treatment. Poland learned about the problem in part through her own experiences of coming under attack. She recounts the stories of many other women harassed online.

Some cases have become notorious, most prominently what is known as Gamergate. Zoe Quinn, a game developer, was abused online and openly complained about it. This led to a huge increase in abuse and threats, in turn triggering a countermovement. Gaming is highly male dominated, and women working in the field are regular targets.

Poland takes aim at the many justifications for cyber harassment and at the advice regularly given to women. One often-repeated mantra is “Don’t feed the trolls.” This assumes that trolling is the problem, but trolling is not an accurate description of rape and death threats. Not feeding the trolls means not replying to abusers, on the assumption that they get their kicks by seeing their target squirm: without replies, they should tire of the game and give up. The problem with this advice is that it doesn’t work. The attackers continue as long as their target is online, and may escalate by sending abuse, threats, and derogatory comments to family members and employers.

(For insights about trolling, see Whitney Phillips’ book “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.” Phillips argues that trolling can’t be addressed on its own because it draws its energy from damaging behaviors in mainstream culture.)

One of the rationalizations for abuse is that “everyone gets harassed.” In other words, women shouldn’t complain because men are harassed too and, anyway, it’s just part of the way the internet works. Poland reports on studies showing that although many people are harassed, women are harassed far more, and furthermore much of the abuse aimed at them is specifically about gender.

Another regular piece of advice is to block the harassers. This is all very well, but is not protection from the harmful effects of abuse. When damaging claims are posted online, they can hinder a woman’s job prospects, because employers often do a Google search on the names of prospective employees. Blocking harassers also takes time; some of them create several new identities every day.

Harassers cloak their actions in the righteous mantle of free speech. In their eyes, it seems, sending unsolicited derogatory comments is an exercise of free speech, and to protest against such messages is an intolerable restraint. Setting aside the fact that rape and death threats are not legally protected speech, one of the consequences of online abuse is the silencing of targets. Indeed, silencing women seems to be the purpose of much of the abuse. This is a serious restraint on their own free speech. If the goal is a public forum where people can express their views, then moderation and respect for others are crucial.

To get a handle on how to respond to cyber harassment, Poland turns to a perspective developed by feminists in the early days of the internet, called cyber feminism. Some women use privacy settings for protection. Groups of women have set up closed online networks for sharing information, including about harassers. A few, for example Lindsay Bottos, use art to challenge online harassment.

But the burden of responding to online abuse should not rest only on women. Poland cites work by Leigh Alexander on what men can do. The first step is to not engage in cyber harassment themselves. Men can also provide one-on-one support for targeted women, focusing on a woman’s work (not just the harassment) and intervening online to draw attention away from the target.

Poland usefully refers to the activism of several U.S. groups, including Working to Halt Online Abuse, End to Cyber Bullying, Crash Override Network and HeartMob.

The psychology of abusers.
Citron, Jane and Poland cite studies about typical perpetrators, but it seems to me that more could be done to understand what drives them. It is not sufficient to look at the effects of their harassment (namely, women driven off online spaces) and assume that is why perpetrators do it. Roy Baumeister, in his book “Evil: Understanding Human Violence and Cruelty,” looked at what is known about the psychology of Nazi camp guards, serial killers, and other perpetrators and concluded that usually they feel justified in their actions, feel they are the real victims, and do not think the consequences of their actions are very significant. If the same analysis applied to perpetrators of online harassment, it implies they do not think sending rape and death threats to women is a big deal and that their targets deserve what they get. This is not far from the usual rationales provided.

But why are women targets? One explanation is based on the psychological process of projection, in which a person unconsciously rejects a part of their self or behavior and attributes it to others. For example, a man might reject his own attraction to other men, fearing it, project it on to gay men and sometimes attack them.

All people have, as part of their personalities, both masculine and feminine aspects. Some men may not want to recognize their feminine side. Instead, they project it onto others, onto women, naturally enough, and then try to destroy it. In this picture, powerful and prominent women would be the most likely targets. This perspective seems compatible with a perpetrator pattern called DARVO—deny, attack, reverse victim and offender—in which perpetrators deny their own abuse, blame it on the target and say, when they are criticized, that they are actually the ones being abused.

The point of gaining a deeper understanding of the psychology of abusers is to come up with more effective responses.

Insights from nonviolent action.
In acting against online abuse, what can be learned from the theory and practice of nonviolent action? This is not straightforward, because nonviolent action most commonly involves collective action in public spaces against identifiable opponents. Cyberabuse typically targets individuals, often in private spaces, and many attackers are anonymous. Nevertheless, several of the key features of effective nonviolent action—non-standard, limited harm, participation, voluntary participation, fairness, prefiguration and skillful use—are relevant to countering cyberharassment.

The most commonly recommended response to online abuse is to report it to authorities, something each of the three authors find is usually unhelpful. A nonviolence-inspired response needs to be something else, something non-standard.

In effective nonviolent action, actionists try to limit the harm to their opponent. In cyberspace, this means not using abuse to counter abuse. It seems that few targets do this anyway. When they do, it is often counterproductive, as would be expected from nonviolence theory.
In nonviolent action, a high level of participation greatly increases effectiveness. Methods such as strikes, boycotts and rallies enable many people to participate regardless of age, sex and ability. In the online environment, the implication is to choose methods of resistance that enable greater participation. A first step is for targeted women (and men) to join together with allies to formulate a collective response. This might be making supportive comments, challenging ISPs that allow abuse and developing campaigns that allow safe participation.

One of the benefits of greater participation in nonviolent action, especially when people with varied backgrounds and experiences are involved, is more ideas about responding and more innovation in techniques. This suggests that campaigners against online misogyny should attempt to involve diverse sectors of the population, for example men as well as women, old and young, different social classes, social media newbies, as well as digital natives, and people from different cultural backgrounds. Especially important is building support among people who would not normally be interested in the social media platforms where abuse often occurs.

Taking the issue to broader sectors of the population has the prospect of getting to friends (online and off), neighbors, parents and children of abusers. This is the same broadening of concern that has been effective in stigmatizing sexual harassment offline.

Another important facet of effective nonviolent action is skillful use of methods. Responding to abusers needs to be done well, based on assessments of the psychology of the attacker, audiences, the likelihood of others joining in the abuse or opposing it and other factors. Developing skills requires guidance and practice. The implication is that targets of abuse need to reach out to others, gain support and, in particular, get help in improving responses. By improving skills in judging the motivations, intent, and psychological weaknesses of harassers, targets should be better able to judge whether to make a polite response, to not respond, to ask for personal assistance or to seek help in mounting a campaign. Similarly, skills can make a big difference when making a response to abusers, finding supporters and campaigning.

All too often, targets feel isolated and humiliated and attempt to deal with the situation on their own. Reaching out to others, and others being willing and able to help, are crucial for mobilizing support and for making better choices and responses.

The implications of ideas from nonviolent action for challenging online abuse seem, at one level, all too obvious: Get more people involved, including from different backgrounds; learn and practice skills; and work cooperatively to develop responses and campaigns. Yet, at another level, these implications are not obvious at all, given the continual attention to addressing the problem through laws and actions by police, ISPs and other officials. Rather than looking for authorities to provide protection, it may be more effective to aim at individual and collective empowerment.

Brian Martin is professor of social sciences at the University of Wollongong, Australia and vice president of Whistleblowers Australia. He is the author of 14 books and hundreds of articles on dissent, nonviolence, scientific controversies, democracy and other topics. His website can be found here.
 

The post Combating online abuse with the principles of nonviolent resistance appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Anna M Vetticad. Photo credit: Firstpost

The Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) strongly condemns the online sexual abuse of film critic Anna M Vetticad and of other women, notably journalists, online.
 
Vetticad has been facing abuse on social media sites, seemingly coordinated, since her review of the Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘Toilet – Ek Prem Katha’.

Vetticad, like other women journalists, has documented this abuse on her Twitter handle, noting that this is hardly the first time this has happened to her. Women, across the world, face misogynist abuse in online spaces forcing many to self-censor or stay silent. This abuse is only magnified in the cases of women journalists, such as Vetticad, who are subjected to online violence simply for doing their jobs, leave alone voicing opinions.  

In recent times, two NWMI members have faced online abuse, namely Dhanya Rajendran, editor of The Newsminute, and senior independent journalist Kavitha Muralidharan. Vetticad has painstakingly documented the abuse against her, highlighting that much of it appears to stem from certain sections of the political spectrum. In Rajendran’s case the abuse was spearheaded by fans of a Tamil actor.

The NWMI unequivocally denounces such online violence against women journalists, and calls for a greater tolerance for divergent views on social media. It also urges politicians, actors and other influencers to call out such behavior, especially from among their followers and make it clear that such actions will not be condoned.
 
Social media sites must go further in proactively acting against abuse without putting victims of such abuse in the position of having to both suffer abuse as well having ensure appropriate action is taken against it. Twitter and Facebook have a long way in making their sites safe for women. 
 
The NWMI demands that:
 
Twitter and Facebook  be more sensitive to online ambush, specifically of women and institute more robust mechanisms to combat online abuse in regional languages. 
• Film actors, politicians with mass following should speak out in public against such abuse. 
• The Editors’ Guild of India and Press Council of India must take suo moto notice of such online harassment of women journalists and editors and come out strongly in their support.
 
 
 

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