Background and Rationale
Regarding the types of violence and harassment women face, the complainants said they have faced threats of publicly posting intimate photos on social media platforms. This is also part of the larger global trend of cyber-violence, as foul and abusive language on social media platforms is the most common form of harassment (Plan International, 2020). Despite increasing activism in favor of gender justice, the increased use of the internet still led to rising rates of violence against women (VAW) in the digital space.
We will also detail the two national events we tracked to further highlight the scope and horrific nature of violence in the digital space.
Literature Review
The Pew Research Center's State of Online Harassment Report measured online harassment using six different behaviors: (a) abusive name calling; (b) on purpose. Although various forms of online harassment have been studied since the early days of the Internet, online sexual violence is still not well understood socially, legally, or academically (Citron, 2014; Reed, 2009; Salter & Bryden, 2009, as cited in Simons, 2015). . The effects of online harassment on women can be devastating to their private lives and professional careers (Simons, 2015).
Research on online harassment and violence also highlights the reasons that encourage this type of violence.
Methodology
Limitations and Challenges
Manual search also included visiting profiles and viewing timelines of selected profiles. It was also difficult to determine the demographics of the actors who responded, as most profiles were locked or comments were made from fake profiles. Bringing together the individual findings, which were written in different languages and analyzed differently, was one of the main struggles.
The team then decided to make the reaction actor profiles anonymous by adding the footage as we did not get commenter consent.
Case Studies
- Farhana Muna (Munatic)
- Background
- Issues Muna Posted About
- Backlash
- Rafiath Rashid Mithila
- Background
- Issues Mithila Posted About
- Who Were the Backlash Actors
- Mithila Farzana
- Background
- Issues Mithila Farzana Posted About
- Who Backlashed Mithila
- Event: Mosarrat Jahan Munia’s Death
- Background
- Contested Issues
- Who Were the Backlash Actors
- Strategies to Counter Backlash
After Munia's death, multiple reports and sources claimed that she was involved in a romantic relationship with Sayem Sobhan Anvir, an influential businessman in Bangladesh. However, Munia's post-mortem report confirmed that she was 2-3 weeks pregnant and had multiple injuries on her body. As the story unfolded further, all the evidence suggested that Anvir was behind Munia's death (The Business Standard, 2021; The Daily Star, 2021).
People's views and opinions were divided into two groups: one group took Munia's side and demanded justice for her death, while the other group called Munia a "gold digger" and a "homewrecker" and believed she deserved to die. We tracked the hashtag "#Munia" in CrowdTangle to understand the trend in the number of interactions around Munia's case. Munia" increased activity from April 18 to May 9 and then from May 16 to June 6.
More hatred was directed against Munia for being a "gold digger" than against Anvir, despite all the evidence and allegations against him for causing Munia's death. Small channels on YouTube seemed to take full advantage of the situation and posted many videos with their interpretations of Munia's death. Munia's death became a "hot topic" and minor media used her death to gain viewers.
The comments not only pointed the finger at Munia, but also criticized her family and blamed Munia's upbringing for her death. Many comments held Munia's sister responsible for her death and labeled her (the sister) as a money hungry woman. First they must judge Munia's elder sister because she abandoned her younger sister to a married man…!”).
Amidst all the negative comments about Munia's character and lifestyle, there was a group of people who came together to show their support for her.
Event: Pori Moni Narcotics Case Detention
Contested Issues
- Blame Game
- Character Questioning
- Countering Backlash and Support From Women’s Rights Groups
The first theory was from those who had supported her in the past and claimed that she was the victim of an act of revenge by Nasir Uddin Mahmood, the businessman against whom she filed the sexual harassment case. The other was from the opposite group, who claimed she made up the story of sexual harassment to avoid prosecution for vandalism while under the influence of alcohol. Meanwhile, some private pictures and videos of Pori Moni with a young and resourceful police officer who was also responsible for investigating Pori Moni's case went viral on social media.
The police officer was removed from the case, but people again blamed Pori Moni for the case. Additionally, news was circulated claiming that Pori Moni and Sayem Sobhan Anvir, the alleged killer of university student Mosarrat Jahan Munia, spent time together in Dubai after Anvir fled the country to avoid arrest in the murder case filed against him. Facebook comments surrounding this issue viewed Pori Moni as a temptress, a woman who requests someone to do something, typically a sexually attractive woman out to entice or seduce someone.
She was often labeled a "prostitute" and convicted of seeking justice for sexual harassment, with some people also claiming "a business transaction gone wrong". There were several discussions and thousands of comments, most of which were hateful comments against Pori Moni. She was called Raater Rani (Queen of the Night) because she used to party with men at night and drink what decent girls wouldn't and what.
Therefore, the issue of Pori Moni, on the one hand, stimulated a new online feminist campaign by young feminist activists, and on the other, created a strong support for Pori. A photo of Pori Moni with the phrase on her hand and a big smile on her face outside the prison gate became a symbol of a strong, unyielding woman, and several activists drew the phrase on their palms and posted it on Facebook.
Facebook Group: Feminism Is Cancer
- Issues Discussed
- Targets
- Actors
- Counter Strategies
After her release, the phrase "Don't love me bitch", drawn with henna on her palm, immediately became popular with the public, especially women and activists, who supported her during her arrest and detention. The group also had specific names for the feminists, such as: নড়ীবাদী/Neribadi (a demeaning term to address feminists), :নড়ী/neri (mutts) which is phonetically similar to নারী/nari (women), and ]টেপায় ালী/ Tipowali (referring to feminist wear a big red dot/bindi on the forehead). The trending hashtags within this group were #StopFeminism, #শাsিড়shockzz (shocking mother-in-law), #:বৗমা_shocks (shocking daughter-in-law), #boycott_transgender, .
In most of the posts, members interacted with "haha" reactions and a few comments supporting the post. In addition to these, the members of FIC often discussed divorce issues and blamed feminists for introducing this concept to Bangladeshi society. Mass reporting is where a group of people report a particular post so that the Facebook authority removes it.
FIC also has a separate group called "Feminism is cancer cyber team (report feminists)", which focuses specifically on mass reporting. They recently started reporting the Facebook group "Rangpur Gay Community" which has over 10,000 members. One of the group members is also a youth leader in the British Council's Active Citizen programme.
These profiles were identified by manually searching the comment sections in the group's various posts. The CrowdTangle activity trends showed a sudden crash in activity, which can be attributed to the Facebook authority being silenced by not allowing posts for a period of time.
Findings Overview
- When Did the Backlash Emerge
- Types of Backlash
- Name-Calling and Labelling
- Sexually Explicit Comments
- Delegitimizing
- Issues That Were Backlashed
- Choice of Clothing
- Content Around Violence Against Women
- LGBTQI-Related Posts
- Backlash Actors
- Backlash Actors on Female Public Figures’ Profiles
- Backlash on Events
- Backlash Strategies
- Strategies to Counter the Backlash
- Limiting or Filtering Comments
- Dark Humour
- Strategic Responses
- Why the Backlash
This is because a journalist, although a media person, is not part of the entertainment industry. In the same posts, Indian Facebook users commented positively, wished her on the holiday or welcomed her to their celebrations. Finally, delegitimization of post content was a common theme and was implemented in a variety of ways.
On the other hand, the derogatory comments or remarks defaming the author of the post got "love" and "like". Women's choice of clothing has been one of the most contentious topics on social media, especially when they are considered to be inconsistent with traditional dress. This also happened to be the case here: the resistance actors or the opposition used this identity of 'ideal Muslim and Bangladeshi women' to stigmatize and defame Mithila.
CrowdTangle could not specify how many of the backlash actors' accounts were fake, locked, or open; it could only tell the number of followers on the profiles we tracked. Most of the commenters were men and boys, but there were also a significant number of women who wrote hateful comments. While most of the strategies like filtering comments and restricting the comment section were common strategies, some of them had their own kinds of strategies to deal with the backlash.
Limiting comments was a common strategy used by female public figures, depending on the subject of the post. However, for some accounts (like Mithila's), the hate comments were so large in numbers that even filtering could not always get rid of all these comments. This was a strategy to deal with the backlash because most of the hate Mithila receives is for her divorce.
Any woman who chose to disrupt this status quo of the “ideal Muslim Bangladeshi society” was considered to be a threat.
Emerging Issues and Conclusion
Protesting for women's rights online has been easier and safer than protesting or preventing women from enjoying their rights on the street. It also infringes on the freedom of speech of women who are vocal in the digital space. She intimidates women who want to enter the digital space, especially Facebook as a social media, and advocate for women's rights issues.
Rapid changes in technology and digital/social media platforms make it more difficult to track trends in online violence over time. These include social media platforms like Reddit, 4Chan and Discord with a large number of users from the younger age group, especially youth. In current times, the digital space serves as a platform for real ideation and as a medium for mobilizing gender justice activism.
Therefore, the emerging form of online response not only closes the digital space for women, but also shrinks the civic space for promoting gender justice. This requires acknowledging the seriousness of this violence and its impact on the lives of women and girls. Therefore, online violence against women needs to be understood and addressed in an appropriate legal framework.
Finally, the state must prevent and mitigate online risks and promote a safe digital space for women, which will ensure freedom of speech in the meantime. Munia murder case: The IO summoned on Sunday to explain the inaction, asked why the accused has not been arrested yet.
