One of the pieces I’ve written that I remain the proudest of is Being a Woman In Public. In that piece, I wrote about how fraught it can be to simply be a woman existing in public. I also wrote about how for many women, one of the most dangerous places they will ever be is in the walls of their own homes.

What I did not cover in that piece was how uniquely dangerous online spaces can be for women.

Too many women who have spoken up online in any semi-public forum can tell you about the vile and violent gendered threats they received for speaking up. Often, they involve rape threats, and frequently they involve death threats and rape threats simultaneously.

Elon Musk stated that Twitter (X) will delete the blocking feature from its platform. While users will be able to restrict who can direct message them and mute accounts, blocking will no longer exist.

The unique cyberviolence women face is one of the reasons why this matters.

One of the women who has spoken powerfully about the barrage of threats women receive online is Laura Bates, who founded the Every Day Sexism Project.

Before her project went viral, she told Amnesty International she received approximately 200 abusive messages a day that often included “detailed, graphic, and explicit descriptions of rape” and other forms of violence.

She also said:

“The psychological impact of reading through someone’s really graphic thoughts about raping and murdering you is not necessarily acknowledged. You could be sitting at home in your living room, outside of working hours, and suddenly somebody is able to send you an incredibly graphic rape threat right into the palm of your hand.”

Bates has perfectly framed the unique harm that cyberviolence has here. Even when women manage to find safety in their homes and are not one of the women experiencing domestic/intimate partner violence, they still cannot escape violence. A violence that lurks in the shadows no matter where you are or what you’re doing has a uniquely terrifying effect.

There are reasons why men (and it is primarily men) send rape threats to women. They know it has a uniquely chilling effect and that it has worked to silence many women, particularly BIPOC women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

There isn’t a place where women can feel safe in this world. That is the message cyberviolence sends.

(Note: Aren’t men affected by cyberviolence? Yes, and any form of cyberviolence is problematic. It is also true that women, particularly BIPOC women or members of the LGBTQIA+ community, experience cyberviolence at much higher rates.)

(Similarly to other areas, the violence they experience online also is more graphic and violent than what males experience. Again to be clear: Violence is wrong, no matter who the victim is. And it is also true that not everybody is victimized equally.)

Another woman told Amnesty:

“[The abuse] definitely makes me pause before I weigh in on anything. It makes me fear for my family. I have had to have an intense conversation with my family about safety and me having a public profile and being out in the community.”

This woman is not unique. Many women have reported that they have changed their online behavior, left platforms, self-censored, or stopped speaking online altogether online due to threats of violence.

I’ve read book after book and article after article where public women shared how the online threats shifted to alarming in-real-life threats. Online threats are terrifying; ones that morph into in-person threats, even more so.

(Note: I briefly wrote about one of my own experiences about how terrifying online violence can be when it morphs past online threats.)

Judy Taing has also spoken of this reality and the disastrous consequences of cyber violence:

“Alarmingly, research and testimony are increasingly showing what many women have long known: that the Internet is not an equal space. The online landscape bears more risks for women than for men […] This scale of online abuse has forced some women to resort to self-censorship or to disengage from their work or online platforms.

“In an era where technology has become a necessity, the consequences of women being unable to access the Internet safely and securely, without facing misogynist abuse, cannot be overstated. If left unaddressed, this issue will have direct ramifications on women’s right to freedom of expression, as well as equality in society as a whole.“

Some may say this is hyperbolic; it isn’t.

Taing added:

“Ensuring women are free from abuse and able to speak out in these spheres is essential to bringing about equality not only online, but in society as well. As Internet usage continues to grow around the world, we must ensure its opportunities for connection and expression are available to all, without abuse or discrimination.”

Companies (and the people that lead them) should want to prevent the silencing of women and the droves of violence women experience online. They should want to prioritize ending cyberviolence.

The fact that Musk has indicated he wants to remove the blocking feature is a clear indication that it does not care about this issue (at least not enough). Again, Musk has indicated that users will still be able to block direct messages or mute accounts, and that is at least better than nothing.

But if Musk moves forward with this change, many women will leave the platform, and many more will have to weigh whether the barrage of violence is outweighed by career benefits or community.

This latest proposal by Musk shows how quickly and effectively one man can practically unilaterally remove important safety features with little consequence and greatly increase the violence people face all while threatening to cut off millions to community.

(Note: he disbanded his board and is the sole manager. I also previously wrote about why the loss of Twitter represented expulsion from community.)

For many, journalists in particular, Twitter/X isn’t optional; it’s mandatory for their job, and it places them in an untenable position.

As more and more people feel silenced and more people (women in particular) weigh whether to invite more violence or to walk away, all of us will be worse for the loss.

(Note: I’m also aware that he can’t do this based on terms of Google/Apple Stores.)

(Note: I hope you read other pieces by other people who discuss the intersectional violence between sexism and racism, the specific threats to BIPOC individuals (particularly women), and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, as I only touched on it briefly here.)

Photo courtesy of Firmbee.com via Unsplash license