Most people around the world, especially those in rural, poor and marginalized areas, experience the Internet largely through social media, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms. According to the Internet usage rate worldwide as of 2022, by gender and market maturity, from Statista, women make up a sizeable proportion of the networked population, nearly at par with men in wealthy nations to four out of ten Internet users in the poorest regions.

Juxtapose this fact with the unbounded misogyny thriving in online communities, unfettered by all measures to contain and eradicate it, and propelled by individuals such as the self-described misogynist Andrew Tate with his over 4.5 million followers on Twitter alone or  groups such as Homme Choc on Facebook where men bond over hatred of women. Almost nine out of ten girls and women Internet users know first-hand what it feels like: Targeted harassment and abuse, gendered disinformation, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images and the creation of deep fakes.

Safer Internet Day (SID) on February 7 was established to “raise awareness of emerging online issues and current concerns.” Online safety issues tend to more often than not, be gender-based, targeting girls, women, gender and sexual minorities disproportionately. This SID, do what you can to advance a misogyny-free Internet.

Get Involved

Visit the Safer Internet Day website to find ideas on how to advance a misogyny-free Internet.

Photo: Rana Hamid

Tate founded “Hustler’s University” which, according to The Guardian (“Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star, Andrew Tate” 6 August 2022), encouraged members, including boys as young as 13, to create accounts to comment and push his content. Within a matter of months, according to The Guardian, the strategy moved Tate from “near obscurity to one of the most talked about people in the world.”

Promises of making money have pulled in over 120,000 people to Hustler’s University, each paying £39 per month which alone adds to Tate’s self-described “multi millionaire” status. Tate’s statement on Hustler’s University website says, “I teach the deserving the secrets to modern wealth creation… we grow stronger every day while traditional education becomes less and less relevant.”

His tactic of pushing his content through making sure his followers comment and stoke controversy also means that algorithms will increasingly recommend his “popular” videos. When The Guardian created a blank account for a teenage boy, they “were quickly shown content of Tate.”

There is one area in which Tate and I potentially agree – that traditional education will become “less and less relevant” if it doesn’t incorporate an understanding of the power of digital media. But no doubt we diverge on what is needed.

Education needs to incorporate digital media literacy at an early age, integrating an understanding of its uses along with the ability to recognize its misuses. As social media companies fail to control content standards, and legislation proves slow and inadequate, we need to build the capacity of real people over fake and manipulated accounts not only to suppress hate but to make respect and equality go viral instead.

Photo: AlesiaKan/Shutterstock