Use of hate speech through comments on social media against women, the factors behind the use of this language, the reasons that certain people express hate in this way, and whether it should be punished by law, were the talking points that were discussed in the yesterday’s Tuesday Salon, with the panelists: Mira Gashi, psychologist and Drenusha Canolli, project coordinator at the D4D Institute.
At the beginning of the discussion, Gashi said that all the violence that is caused happens because, sometimes, people cannot face different opinions, which is, a population limited in freedom of expression, different types of violence occur, not only on online platforms.
Furthermore, referring to a study by the United Nations Foundation, Gashi has shown that 85% of women are witnesses of online violence. Whereas in Kosovo, we do not have exact statistics, but we can say that the wave of cyber violence has increased, even within our families. She further said that, from the first steps, children should be informed about the protective mechanisms they should use in the virtual world, the preventive aspect, the real approach and the reactive approach in a society.
Among other things, in this discussion it was recommended to promote technological manuals or books that can be used in schools, preventive training for girls and women, how to protect themselves minimally, how to behave, how to react to this bitter reality, especially women in public life who are targeted for negative comments and the language used is a very heavy language. But, not only to intergender violence, there is violence against the same gender also, which crosses the parameters and we must work to eradicate the phenomenon of gender separation.
Meanwhile, Drenusha Canolli, has shown that for a month, online media and various groups in social media, and the comments to women who are in politics have been monitored. She has mentioned that, the largest number of misogynistic comments towards women are during the election campaign. Likewise, the largest number of news items that have been clicked for a year are articles that have misleading headlines, and content where women have been targeted.
During the salon, the reference point was the role played by the media, in preventing or inciting to hatred. In the salon, it was discussed the fact that being aware that the use of hate speech brings you visibility, the media stimulate the use and distribution of such news, by exploiting this in the commercial aspect for individual gains. However, prevention and improvement of such behaviors may be possible by reducing the use of words containing violence, insulting, derogatory, etc., such as, in social media, portals, radio. In this way, the policy making should have this impact directly in the field of applicability.