Digital violence

Violence against women has many dimensions, including psychological, economic, physical, sexual, digital, mobbing, and stalking. The painful part is that for women to realize they are being subjected to violence, they must first notice it—that is, comprehend it. Please do not say, “How can a person not notice the violence they are subjected to?” Often, psychological violence progresses so insidiously and manipulatively that you do not even realize what you are being subjected to until the psychological effects it has created in you emerge. Therefore, noticing that you are being subjected to violence is the first condition for fighting it. It is not very easy to fully define, describe, or understand certain types of violence. Like psychological violence, digital violence is one of these hard-to-understand types of violence. 

Look at what Article 3 of the Istanbul Convention, from which we withdrew suddenly in one night, says? 

“Violence against women shall be understood as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

If the Istanbul Convention were being written today, “digital harm and suffering” would likely have been added to this article. Perhaps a separate paragraph could even have been opened for digital violence. Finding the perpetrators of violence committed in the digital environment is much more difficult than finding the perpetrators of other types of violence. The reason for this is that you can be pressured, threatened, harassed, insulted, and stalked by someone you do not know at all through an anonymous account. Furthermore, this act of violence can be carried out remotely without physical contact, or it can turn into an action by locating the targeted person through technological means. Also, of course, the perpetrators of digital violence can be an anonymous man whom the woman does not know at all, or they can be a “familiar” person whom she knows, such as an ex-husband or an ex-boyfriend, but who hides their identity.

Moreover, digital violence does not recognize age limits… While parents mostly make an extraordinary effort to protect their children from harm, their children can be subjected to cyberbullying by someone they do not know at all over the internet without them even realizing it. Research shows that cyberbullying is spreading rapidly. According to the results of a survey conducted by UNICEF in 2019, it was determined that one in three young people in 30 countries had been subjected to cyberbullying. Isn't that frightening?

According to the digital violence research published by Konda in 2021, it was determined that two out of every ten people in Turkey have been subjected to digital violence. No differentiation is seen according to gender in the research. While exposure to insults, profanity, and threats is the most common, it was seen that this was followed by written, audio, and visual harassment messages, constant stalking, and the bullying of creating fake accounts, respectively.

In gender-based digital violence, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, it was determined that 38% of women have been subjected to online violence and 85% of women who spend time online have witnessed digital violence against other women. Furthermore, according to UNESCO, 73% of female journalists are subjected to digital violence while working. It has been observed that, in addition to female journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and female lawyers are frequently subjected to digital violence. 

Now, in light of all this data, I suggest you review the actions you are subjected to on social media. Observe carefully which ones are violence and which ones are not… You will see that digital violence continues to sting like a mosquito that bites without you noticing, continuing to wound your soul. 

Sources:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-trolling-stalking-doxing-and-other-forms-of-violence-against-women-in-the-digital-age

https://turkiye.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/digital_violence_report.pdf