BBC article (& Panorama prog): women and online abuse

[yetanotherusernameAgain]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58924168

Long article (and Panorama programme, broadcast tonight at 7.30pm) by Marianna Spring about online abuse aimed at women in the public eye.

They've compared the abuse directed at male and female reality TV contestants (race is also a factor); tried to contact some trolls to see why they do it; set up various social media accounts and found that Facebook and Instagram are more likely to direct someone with an interest in hate or conspiracy theories to more and more content in that vein; and she describes her attempts of reporting online abuse to the police.

This looks interesting - thanks for flagging it up OP.

Bump

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0010s0w

It looks interesting and depressing in equal measure. Luckily I have wine and chocolate to help me through. Thanks for posting OP.

Wine and chocolate is good.

Watched it, OMG.....

WTF is wrong with these people....?!

It's like Incels on steroids.

I know BBC get a lot of flack on here but I am glad they are putting out programmes like this.

I'm in my 60s, went through the hippy time as a youngster, Roe v Wade, feminism, black power (BLM)... brought my DS up to be respectful of all...

Just horrified now by all of it.

The new witch hunt.

I

Thank you, yetanother, for the summary of the programme. From the bit I saw it was primarily about abuse of female reality tv participants. It's depressing and shocking that the nature of this abuse is always about sexualised insult and violence - and it struck me at the hateful terms of abuse are freely used in this programme without any apology or awareness of offence or hurt.

It was upsetting to see the presenter breaking down in tears while talking about the effect of this abuse. It's plain to see the huge toll on a woman who is doing her job in the public eye for the public service broadcaster - a broadcaster that is quite cavalier about repeating the vile abusive language that she and other women are routinely subjected to.

What she said about the police liaison officer's cavalier attitude was shocking. He had lost a portfolio of the insulting messages she had provided; he said he wasn't the right person to deal with it and wasn't a specialist; she is now on her third liaison officer and after six weeks of submitting further information, still nothing.

It comes across as the police not treating it with due seriousness and 'losing' the file as it can't be bothered to do anything about it.

Shameful but no surprise that it indicates the same indifference and negligence we have been hearing so many examples of from women and organisations in the wake of the recent murder of Sarah.

What can one say about the likes of the owner of facebook and instagram when we learn that the system is set up to provide via algorithm further abusive content to users? More money is to be made from promoting abuse. Despicable.