News & Politics
In the second episode of Thinking Justice, we are joined by Dr Emma A. Jane and Dr Nicole A. Vincent to discuss regulatory responses to gendered cyberhate. We explore the escalation of online misogyny with the shift to interactive spaces of web 2.0, including particular patterns and techniques of abuse such as trolling, doxing, ‘revenge porn’, deep fakes and sextortion. Emma and Nicole have examined the formulaic structure of abuse over time by creating a ‘rape threat generator’ based on real-life cyberhate received by real-life women, which can be accessed at rapeglish.com. In this episode they discuss how online cyberhate targets women in media, politics and the tech industry, with a focus on Gamergate, and how perpetrators are not necessarily deterred by decreasing online anonymity. Facing a lack of systemic and legal remedies, they describe the emergence of individual ‘digilante’ tactics (to expose and shame perpetrators) and the role of technology in capturing, tracking and bringing accountability for online abuse.