"Your Online Violence Toward Girls and Women Is What Can Kiss My Ass"
March 20, 2015 1:45 PM   Subscribe

Once upon a time, Ashley Judd made the mistake of tweeting while watching a sports game. You already can guess what horrible things are happening to her after I said that. But she's fighting back.

"On Sunday, after tweeting that she believed the Arkansas Razorbacks were “playing dirty” against the Wildcats, Judd was targeted and threatened with a barrage of explicit messages." She's been doing interviews since then saying that she's filing police reports and pressing charges. Note that the Today show said the responses were so vulgar that they could not broadcast them. Though she doesn't realistically expect them to be prosecuted, she wants to make her point.

Yesterday, she posted an essay online about the experience.
"I routinely cope with tweets that sexualize, objectify, insult, degrade and even physically threaten me. I have already — recently, in fact — looked into what is legally actionable in light of such abuse, and have supplied Twitter with scores of reports about the horrifying content on its platform. But this particular tsunami of gender-based violence and misogyny flooding my Twitter feed was overwhelming.

Instead, I must, as a woman who was once a girl, as someone who uses the Internet, as a citizen of the world, address personally, spiritually, publicly and even legally, the ripe dangers that invariably accompany being a woman and having an opinion about sports or, frankly, anything else.

What happened to me is the devastating social norm experienced by millions of girls and women on the Internet. Online harassers use the slightest excuse (or no excuse at all) to dismember our personhood. My tweet was simply the convenient delivery system for a rage toward women that lurks perpetually."

Today, Twitter added a new feature that is supposed to make reporting abusive tweets to law enforcement easier. I guess we'll see how that goes.
posted by jenfullmoon (26 comments total) 39 users marked this as a favorite
 
the violence , anger and hatred lurking just below the surface is staggering.
posted by greenhornet at 1:53 PM on March 20, 2015 [10 favorites]


It doesn't really sound like it's below the surface...
posted by teponaztli at 1:57 PM on March 20, 2015 [38 favorites]


That "new feature" feels like a joke. After you report something, now there is an option to email you a copy of the report so you can print it out and give it to the police or something.
posted by smackfu at 1:59 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


And I'm pretty sure I know what the police reaction to a Twitter report printout is going to be.
posted by nicolas.bray at 2:19 PM on March 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


I'm also confused about the new Twitter report feature - it can't be that hands-off, can it? Is it really just a summary of events for you to print out and deal with on your end? I'm just... baffled.

This is what taking personal responsibility as CEO looks like?
posted by erratic meatsack at 2:21 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


That "new feature" feels like a joke. After you report something, now there is an option to email you a copy of the report so you can print it out and give it to the police or something.

Here's a piece with some more details on it:
The report will include the flagged tweet or content, its URL, the time it was posted, and the account of the person who posted the tweet. The report also includes a link to the company’s guidelines on how law enforcement can request private user account information from the company. The link was included in anticipation of the move law enforcement may make after the affected Twitter user submits the report to the police. Again, it is not Twitter who reports the abuse to law enforcement, but the user.

The tool was made with practicality in mind. Usually, when a victim of abuse reports the harassment to authorities, the police would recommend to keep records of the harassment in order to strengthen their case.... [W]ith the amount of harassment usually involved in these cases, it will always be an arduous task for victims for simply protecting their rights. With this in mind, compiling evidence is made easier.
Seems like an affirmatively useful tool, and a step in the right direction, to me. I certainly wouldn't argue that Twitter is now doing "enough" about online harassment, but there's nothing wrong with progress.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 2:22 PM on March 20, 2015 [13 favorites]


Yes.
posted by smidgen at 2:22 PM on March 20, 2015


Calling this progress feels unbelievably depressing to me.
posted by erratic meatsack at 2:25 PM on March 20, 2015 [7 favorites]


To be fair, you're also invited to discuss the printout with your barista.
posted by cortex at 2:25 PM on March 20, 2015 [117 favorites]


How long until MRAs use the new reporting feature to harass women?
posted by gucci mane at 2:28 PM on March 20, 2015 [6 favorites]


There must be money in making a harassment-free space online, right? Right?
posted by Going To Maine at 2:29 PM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]


WTF, you people (not you MeFis, I think, but the ones like the ones discussed here)?

What reason is there to act like this? Seriously? I have been on a few internet skirmishs (including one here at MeFi that got downright nasty in MeFiMail), but I just DO NOT understand why people have to be like that!

(FWIW, I am being evaluated for autistic spectrum, so I can be a little over-analytical about this stuff, and it STILL MAKES ZERO FUCKING SENSE TO ME!)
posted by Samizdata at 2:30 PM on March 20, 2015 [6 favorites]


Life is just too freaking short to allow for this behaviour.

Gah.
posted by Samizdata at 2:31 PM on March 20, 2015


How long until MRAs use the new reporting feature to harass women?

well considering the recent thing with GamerGaters attempting to take legal action over the blocklists, I'm betting they're probably trying to do this already; luckily they are mostly woefully incompetent
posted by NoraReed at 2:31 PM on March 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


So sick of online sites tolerating this stuff. How about the abusive tweeters getting banned from Twitter, hmm, Twitter?
posted by bearwife at 2:43 PM on March 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


Never mind, I am now applauding Twitter for this Ashley Judd tweet four hours ago:

Many from @twitter:
We’ve investigated and suspended the account you reported as it was found to be participating in abusive behavior.

posted by bearwife at 2:47 PM on March 20, 2015 [9 favorites]


And over in the League scene, Sky Williams has started a major shitfight with his video "Dear Female Streamers" lecturing women for having breasts and sometimes showing parts of them. This was followed by a rather long thread in /r/leagueoflegends and an episode of Dropped Frames featuring four female streamers. The shitshow culminated last night in a stream between Sky, SivHD, Destiny, Kaceytron and TotalBisquick (part 1 starts at 1:32:00ish, part 2, part 3) which basically involved Destiny pointing out how fucking stupid SivHD and Sky are about "deserving" viewers and "taking away from deserving hard working streamers with evil tits". This morning Kaceytron issued a statement with her thoughts the morning after (associated Ghazi thread) .

The whole thing has become a clusterfuck of epic proportions because, you know, STOP LIKING THINGS THAT I DON'T LIKE!
posted by Talez at 2:50 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


How exactly does Twitter define abusive behavior? Last time I went through the rules I couldn't quite figure it out.
posted by Drinky Die at 2:51 PM on March 20, 2015


How exactly does Twitter define abusive behavior?

They give themselves lots of discretion. But this is one of their explicit rules: Violence and Threats: You may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others.

I'd say the rape threats in this case would clearly qualify.
posted by bearwife at 2:57 PM on March 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


This story, posted on Facebook, may turn out to be an excellent asshole filter, if you're looking to trim some friends...
posted by SillyShepherd at 3:06 PM on March 20, 2015


goddamnit arkansas, you're taking being embarrassing to new and shitty levels lately. first the assholes, aided by the duggers (your hate watching has a cost!), scuttle the anti-discrimination ordinance in my town, then we go all republican for the first time in forever, then tom cotton is...doing whatever the fuck it is that tom cotton is doing, then arkansas bans anti-discrimination ordinances and keeps trying to get the religious exception into law, then one of our state reps is discovered to have "rehomed" his adopted daughters - handing them over to a pedophile, and now the razorbacks are making the news for this bullshit.

i still love my state, but man it makes it hard some days.
posted by nadawi at 3:15 PM on March 20, 2015 [8 favorites]


This story, posted on Facebook, may turn out to be an excellent asshole filter, if you're looking to trim some friends...

There was a time when I dreaded Facebook and hated going there for this reason. Then I decided that that was foolish and unfriended about a third of the people I had friended on there and now I straight-up don't have this problem. It's amazing and I recommend it to whatever extent you feel comfortable with.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:35 PM on March 20, 2015 [8 favorites]


All this moaning about 'why are some people so nasty?' seems to me like whining about 'Why do torturers torture?' Or "Why is a cobra a cobra.
The main takeaway, IMO, is that NJ is demanding her rights as a US resident (not 'citizen' btw -- the Bill of Rights makes no mention of 'citizen').
Every person in the US has an absolute right to not be threatened with rape, murder, bodily harm. The platform is irrelevant; the 'anonymous' or pseudonym handle is irrelevant.
AJ is entitled to a full investigation, prosecution, conviction, and punishment of anyone who made these horrific threats against her.
I am entitled to that protection of AJ; so are you; so are we all. Lynch and rape threats against any individual are not threats against you, me, and society as a whole.
posted by LonnieK at 7:09 PM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


Holy Toledo. I mistyped. I said: Lynch and rape threats ... are not threats against you, me, and society as a whole.
Strike "not."
I meant the opposite, namely:
Each of us entitled to protection of our own self, or course -- but we are also entitled to the protection of everyone else. It's MY right, and YOUR right, to live in a society where nobody is threatened or lynched.
posted by LonnieK at 7:17 PM on March 20, 2015 [5 favorites]


How long until MRAs use the new reporting feature to harass women?

well considering the recent thing with GamerGaters attempting to take legal action over the blocklists, I'm betting they're probably trying to do this already; luckily they are mostly woefully incompetent


Incompetent at anything relating to their pretend goals, yeah, but unfortunately very competent at abusing online tools to harass women online. This particular tool doesn't look very useful for those ends though, but for people really being harassed or threatened if it actually gives police a starting point it might lead to at least a few cases ending up better. The fact that the police have not taken the issue seriously is a big part of why it has gotten so out of hand, if the tech companies can start putting pressure on the police to hold up their end, it could be a big help.
posted by Drinky Die at 12:51 AM on March 21, 2015


What the fuck, I assumed she was perhaps making fun of the sport or something, but she's a fan and they're upset. She voiced her opinion over a game... isn't that the only thing sports fans can do? Get worked up and yell shit about their teams or the other team, calling them "dirty" isn't even very provocative. I don't watch any sports but if you happen to go on facebook or something when a game is on you'll know immediately from the parade of goobers raving about inane context-less sports shit, much of it more heated and mean than her comment. I don't know whether I should focus my disdain on just all humans or sports enablers.
posted by GoblinHoney at 8:13 PM on March 21, 2015


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