Online violence towards women reaches highest ever levels

PSNI has received at least 1,220 reports of online violence towards women since 2015.

Last year seen the highest figures ever recorded - with 433 feeling so under threat they reported it to the police.

The Amnesty International investigation revealed that police have received a shocking number of reports of online violence against women - including harassment, stalking and death threats - over the past four years.

In Northern Ireland alone, 1,220 online crimes where the victim were was female have been logged.

This total could be even higher as not all crimes specified the gender of the victim.

Last year, thirty of the Northern Ireland cases involved death threats against women, with another 394 cases constituting harassment, according to PSNI figures.

Amnesty say the figures demonstrate the alarmingly widespread nature of online violence against women and girls, and further support Amnesty’s previous claims that social media companies are failing to protect women’s rights.

Earlier this year, Amnesty revealed the shocking levels of online violence and abuse experienced by women in the UK:

• one in five women polled in the UK had suffered online abuse or harassment;

• almost half of women polled said the abuse or harassment they received was sexist or misogynistic;

• 27% said it threatened sexual or physical assault;

• fewer than 1 in 10 British women think Twitter is doing enough to stop online violence and abuse;

• majority of women who experience abuse or harassment on social media experience stress, anxiety, panic attacks, powerlessness and loss of confidence as a result.

In May, following the publication of Amnesty's report, Belfast City Council voted to call on Twitter and other social media companies to address their failure to address the threats of violence and abuse directed at women.

A number of prominent female politicians in Northern Ireland have previously spoken to Amnesty about the abuse they have received via Twitter.

Amnesty wants social media companies to take online violence and abuse seriously and believes that platforms like Twitter have a responsibility to ensure women feel safe using their platforms.

Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland programme director of Amnesty International, said:

“These police figures show that social media has become a toxic space for too many women, where they face misogynistic abuse and threats of violence.

“The fact that many women are feeling so threatened by online violence and abuse that they’re having to ask the police for help shows how serious a problem now exists, and these figures likely just scratch the surface of a much larger problem.

“Amnesty’s previous research, including in Northern Ireland, has shown that for far too long, social media spaces like Twitter have been allowed to become places where women can too easily be confronted with death threats, rape threats and more.

“Social media can play an important role in public debates and in movements like #MeToo, but the online space must be made a safer place where women can express themselves freely without fear of violence.

“We cannot let the trolls win by silencing women and driving their voices out of public conversations."

Amnesty’s Write for Rights campaign is calling on Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey to make Twitter a safer space for all users by enforcing its own rules on hateful conduct and abuse.