Social media is an important tool and can be a force for good. Unfortunately, equally, it is also a place where people can experience impoliteness as well as abuse, including threats. Online abuse can happen at any time and can quickly escalate.
This online safety toolkit aims to support you in using social media as safely as possible and in knowing what to do and where to go if you experience any online abuse.
In a report* from The Jo Cox Foundation, chair Jacqui Smith states that “abuse and intimidation of elected politicians is one of the biggest threats to democracy in the UK”.
The Jo Cox Foundation’s report, ‘No place in politics: Tackling abuse and intimidation’ talks about the chilling effect that online abuse can have on democracy. This includes politicians who have left their roles due to the impact of such abuse. It also looks at how this can deter people from entering politics in the first place.
The chair of The Jo Cox Foundation, Jacqui Smith says in the report: “We know that abuse disproportionately impacts women, as well as those from minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ people, and disabled people. If people are put off entering political life, our democratic institutions become less representative and less effective. We all suffer.”
Research conducted by Dr Emily Harmer and Dr Rosalynd Southern from the University of Liverpool looked specifically at the experiences of women in local political settings.
In their final report for the British Academy, Dr Harmer and Dr Southern said: “We found that they were often less well prepared and resourced to deal with online harassment, and that more worryingly, they were more likely to come face-to-face with those who had abused them online because of their political communities being more concentrated and closer to home.
“These findings underline the importance of tackling the issue of online abuse and harassment for women and minoritized politicians at a national and local level.”
These research findings have prompted the development of this toolkit, in order to support those either currently in public life or anyone seeking to enter politics.
Analysis of a week of replies to 33 women MPs on Twitter (now X) conducted by Dr Harmer and Dr Southern showed the level of serious forms of hate speech which women in politics were subjected to on a daily basis.
Women are disproportionately impacted by online abuse, with examples experienced by women politicians found during the University of Liverpool research including gendered and racist abuse.
Some tweets were found to sexualise women MPs, insulting their experience and being explicitly racist and Islamophobic.
Another note of concern flagged up during the course of this research was that, while some tweets were not necessarily openly abusive, they were attempts to silence or dismiss the ideas of the women MPs in question.
A third type of tweet identified called into question the intelligence, qualifications or credentials of the women politicians concerned.
