Online hate against women - finding solutions, taking action
We hope you had a great week. In this issue of Checklist, we take a look at the issue of online hate against women. Through our work we have been trying to address the serious issue of online attacks on women, especially those working as journalists, in different regions. A BBC reporter shares about the misogynistic hate directed at her and how this has become a regular occurrence.
Do read our guest blogpost from Dr. Gillian “Gus” Andrews, a public educator, writer, and researcher who is known on the cybersecurity speaking circuit for posing thought-provoking questions about the human side of digital life.
Please share your thoughts and feedback and invite your friends to sign up here.
The latest top stories
China-linked disinformation campaign blames Covid on Maine lobsters (NBC News)
Marcel Schliebs, a disinformation researcher at the University of Oxford who had been tracking messaging that Chinese diplomats and state media spread on Twitter for 18 months, found evidence that pro-China social media accounts are pushing a new thread of propaganda related to the origins of the pandemic.
"Attribution is really difficult, but we can see there’s a coordinated effort, and that it’s a pro-Chinese narrative... We alerted Twitter about the network, and they quickly suspended it just as it was starting to gain traction, when the network was in its growth phase... We slowed it down significantly, but we still see some coordinated effort to spread the message. It seems like accounts are being set up now to replace the ones taken down in response to our investigation." — Marcel Schliebs, Postdoctoral researcher of computational propaganda at Oxford’s Programme on Democracy and Technology
Surveillance laws are failing to protect privacy rights: what we found in six African countries (The Conversation)
While privacy rights for citizens of a number of African countries are well protected in theory, a comparative review of privacy protections on the continent has found that governments are purposefully using laws that lack clarity, or ignore laws completely in order to carry out illegal digital surveillance of their citizens.
Alongside improving the law must be action to raise public awareness of privacy rights and surveillance practices. A strong civil society, independent media and independent courts are needed to challenge government actions. This is critical for holding governments accountable and upholding the privacy rights of citizens everywhere. — Researchers from the Institute of Development Studies and the African Digital Rights Network
I get abuse and threats online - why can't it be stopped? (BBC News)
Warning: Story contains strong language
I'm the BBC's first specialist disinformation reporter - and I receive abusive messages on social media daily. Most are too offensive to share unedited. The trigger? My coverage of the impact of online conspiracies and fake news. I expect to be challenged and criticised - but misogynistic hate directed at me has become a very regular occurrence.
"Social media companies say they take online hate against women seriously - and they have rules to protect users from abuse. These include suspending, restricting or even shutting down accounts sending hate.
But my experience suggests they often don't. I reported some of the worst messages I've ever received - including threats to come to my house to rape me and commit horrific sexual acts - to Facebook when I received them. But months later, the account remained on Facebook, along with dozens of other Instagram and Twitter accounts sending me abuse.
It turns out my experience is part of a pattern. New research for this programme by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, shows how 97% of 330 accounts sending misogynistic abuse on Twitter and Instagram remained on the site after being reported." — Marianna Spring, Specialist disinformation reporter, BBC News
What’s new at Meedan
Fact-checking requires more than facts—it also requires trust at a human scale
Read our guest post from Dr. Gillian “Gus” Andrews, a public educator, writer, and researcher who is known on the cybersecurity speaking circuit for posing thought-provoking questions about the human side of digital life.