Sexual Harassment on Twitter
I thought for my first post back, I'd discuss something a bit different to what I usually write about - social media and the issues surrounding it. I've put off writing about this for the longest of times due to struggling with wording and also through being oblivious to just how big the problem is.
As most of you will know, I have around 8000 followers on Twitter and 900 on Instagram - which albeit isn't a lot but it's enough for some of my tweets to gain traction.
Twitter is my main platform, somewhere in which I voice my own opinions on current matters, my feelings or just when I literally have nothing better to do. In my past 4 years of social media I've experienced almost constant sexual harassment, death threats and bullying to name a few. I never really thought much of it until I was discussing it with friends and they were shocked, it was then I realised how big of a problem it is.
I'm aware of how I will probably be made out to be a "social justice warrior" but I don't want to sit in silence. I was first exposed to the harsh reality of social media when I was around 15, I started to receive suggestive messages etc and it was then when I was confronted with my first "send nudes" incident. Someone who I thought was my friend and could be trusted, asked me, a 15 year old girl for nudes. Please bear in mind this guy was two years older than me and I now know that had I succumbed to the pressure he placed upon me he could have been found guilty in a court of law. I said no and he soon vanished from the face of the earth. Actually, he messaged me a year later apologising - but only after his friend was found guilty after trying to entice a girl the same age as me to perform sexual acts.
On Twitter, it's become the norm for me to receive sexual advances via DMs - whether it's intended as a compliment or not, it isn't wanted by me as I've stated on multiple occasions. In fact, I once had a guy DM me saying that I "owed him nudes" because I was a "bitch" and he was a man, safe to say he was swiftly blocked. But blocking isn't a solution to the situation, because 9/10 they'll just go and harass another girl. Reporting to Twitter is also useless, they do NOTHING to help. They'll suggest you block them and that they're under investigation but nothing will ever happen. I actually had someone message me the most horrific messages I've ever received in my life not that long ago and I reported them on Twitter and was told that they'd found him guilty of violating their terms of condition and revoked his account but within 2 hours, he was back online again.
Not only are women more encouraged to block anyone harassing them, but they are actively shamed for defending themselves against the offender. I have seen numerous women tweet out screenshots of vile messages they've received and tried to publicly shame the offender, only to receive "why do you even reply?", "just block them" and "they're just trolls". I understand that people are usually just "trolling", but how does that make it acceptable? Answer: it doesn't. I encourage girls to stand up for themselves, and for others to stand up for them, shame the wrongdoers and at least attempt to make them feel guilty for the vile messages.
I wanted to find out more about what other girls go through on Twitter, so I conducted a number of Twitter polls. I want to make everyone aware though that obviously these polls have limitations, such as I'm not sure whether it was just entirely females that answered - however, Twitter polls were the most convenient way of conducting a poll and receiving feedback almost immediately.
Poll 1 - "I have received unwanted sexual advances via DMs" - 338 votes
- Out of 338 votes received, a whopping 218 (65%) respondents said they had received unwanted sexual advances on Twitter. Having experienced this myself, this number honestly wasn't that surprising to me, however - that doesn't make it okay. Receiving sexual advances that aren't wanted or asked for leaves me wondering if anyone is educated in consent. If someone has not provided you consent to send them sexual advances, then why send them any? You wouldn't go out and show your penis to a stranger in public, so why would sitting behind a screen grant you the right to perform the same act?
Poll 2 - "I have been put under pressure by someone to send nudes (regardless of whether you sent them or not)" - 347 votes
- The asking of nudes, something that's a pretty normal topic of the internet. I am in no way against sending nudes if that's what people want to do! But, I am against putting someone under pressure to send nudes. Alongside this pressure, people usually experience feelings of anxiety - whether it stems from pressure of not being liked if a nude photo is not sent, or through body confidence or simply not wanting to send one - you do not have to have an excuse to not send someone nude photos! 253 (73%) respondents said they had felt pressure from someone to send a nude photo. Sending a nude photo should be a consenting matter between both parties, if they say "no" respect their decision. When I was confronted with this situation and I said "no", I was scrutinised by the other party and I was made to feel guilty.
Poll 3 - "I've reported someone for harassing me on Twitter and nothing was done to protect me" - 322 votes
- Social media in general is known for having poor policies, if any, for protecting their users. Whether it's identity theft or sexual harassment - the main suggestion from Twitter is to block the user and ignore them, something I personally feel isn't enough to protect users. 126 (39%) respondents said that they had previously reported a user and nothing was done by Twitter. I asked users what they thought Twitter could further do to protect them from harassment, below are two of their responses:
- "blocking people won't make a lot of difference because that still allows people to harass others. I think they should be reported and should be taken a lot more seriously."
- "Twitter should make sure the same IP address can't message you if they make another account".
I also constructed a few polls for men to vote in, to try and get an understanding of their habits on Twitter.
Poll 1 - "Have you ever sent unwanted sexual advances to girls?" - 91 votes
- Firstly, a significantly lower number of men answered these polls. However, 33 (36%) males said that they had sent unwanted sexual advances before to a girl. Regardless of a small number of responses, this is still a significantly high percentage of respondents who in fact have sent unwanted sexual advances. It would be interesting to establish what these advances were but as people typically feel shame regarding this topic, it would be tough to establish reasonings.
Poll 2 - "Have you ever felt like you've crossed a boundary before with a girl on Twitter?" - 90 votes
- 34 (38%) of males said they felt like they had crossed a boundary before with a girl. This number concerns me, especially as such a high number of girls replied to my polls saying they had been harassed on Twitter before. Perhaps they don't feel like they've crossed a boundary, even if they have. Again, I'm not sure why people responded the way they did - I'm simply offering possible explanations as to why they might have voted the way they did.
It's obvious that more needs to be done to protect women from sexual harassment on Twitter and more needs to be done to remove these offending accounts and prevent them from accessing the site again, whether it's blocking IP address or taking reports more seriously - something needs to change. Having been a victim of sexual harassment on Twitter, in private conversations and in person, I understand how awful it can make you feel and I feel so strongly about it being taken more seriously on social media in general.
It would be great to hear your thoughts on the whole issue of sexual harassment on Twitter and whether you think more needs to be done to protect users, so either leave a comment or contact me on Twitter! Also, if you found this interesting and would like to see more of this style of blogposts, please let me know!
- Lucy
@lossayyy
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