Lessons from Offline

Lessons from Offline

Using of fear to protect children

We have to be careful we’re not violating people’s rights in order to make them or others safe

None of the messaging on digital safety for children has changed behavior one bit - focus now on literacy - digital & social literacy

Using humor to spread kindness & respect

Safety as external - rules, policy, surveillance, parental control software. Internal safety is empathy respect literacy.

How to mitigate people’s behavior in a way the fosters conversation and community?

You’re more likely to be harmed by someone you know. Which is not considered moral outrage like stranger/predator.

internet as a tool of finding community

Promise of a space where you can perform gender in new and exciting ways has been erased.

Sex is the number one thing we do online. Besides cats.

There’s a temptation to think that tech is the problem and/or the solution.

Anonymity can be survival. Anonymity can be an obstacle to accountability.

Difference between motive and impact

Early childhood education is key

• What is familiar about online violence?*

what is happening online isn’t much different than the terrorism groups like the kkk promote. IP addresses are like white sheets

There should be coordination between groups like SPLC, that fight hate groups in general, and anti-online harassment projects

The idea that women are public property for use, abuse, comment, and as a resource.

Trivialization of harms that accrue to women

The myth of neutral platform erases misogyny

The myth of the “equal opportunity” troll - if you just want to hurt people “in general,” the easiest ones to hurt are the ones who are already oppressed.

Focus is on stranger attacks, silence about intimate attacks.

The dominant group never describes itself. We describe everyone in opposition. It’s not called the “men’s world cup.”

Victim blaming!

Rescue of women used to justify invasion & colonization (internet.org)

Patriarchal fundamentalist norms are baked into the original architecture

Bystanders = untapped power

Social consequence can extinguish social behavior. Banning, shunning, etc. #distractinglysexy

• What is new about online violence?*

The internet is an accelerant or multiplier of existing impulses, structures and dynamics. It is a magnifier of human experience.

Online is where people from different classes in India are mixing for the first time in a thousand years

Paranoia that comes with online targeting. Because it’s anonymous, it can be way more scary. Also people you want privacy from may discover what you’re saying online

Internet used to be more of a “fantasy space.” Now it’s more of a “public space.” Rules of engagement are different.

Now there is white panic about things black and brown people have been dealing with for years. Surveillance & control.

White male American companies control discourse and therefore reality of women in Pakistan, etc.

A lot of pressure to have formed opinions, persona, brand. Even for young people. Strongest voice wins. And then those that don’t have opinions become followers and lead to mobs. MRAs, etc.