Seyi Akiwowo, Glitch
ICYMI:
Women are 27 times more likely to be harassed online globally.
Black women are 84% more likely to be mentioned in abusive or problematic tweets
4 out of 10 people in the UK have experienced online abuse.
That brings us to Seyi, an incredible woman who has witnessed first-hand how online harassment disproportionately affects women and has a terrible and lasting impact on its victims. After becoming the youngest, black female Councillor in East London, an impromptu speech Seyi gave at the European Parliament went viral and months later she battled through horrific online abuse in response to the video.
Seyi is now campaigning to end online abuse through her non-profit organisation, Glitch. The platform provides digital citizenship workshops and digital resilience training so we can all learn to be better people on the internet. This includes digital self care for those experiencing online abuse, how to become an online active bystander and how we can all work together to “fix the glitch” in our online spaces.
Until recently, companies like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter have largely been self-regulating. There have been widespread calls for social media companies to take more responsibility, especially after the tragic death of Molly Russell who took her own life after viewing graphic content on Instagram. A lot of my day job involves working with social media so I was interested to see that this week Ofcom has been granted the power to regulate social media companies in the UK - a task I do not envy - there are 500 million post shared on Twitter everyday and every 5 seconds 45 hours worth of video is uploaded onto YouTube alone. With that in mind, though it is a step in the right direction, it’s likely the impact of this change will take some time to be effective so it’s never been more important to pay attention to digital self care and to look out for the women around you.
In response to the news about Ofcom Seyi Akiwowo said:
“It is great to see that Ofcom’s powers will be extended to internet safety and that social media firms will be held to account over online abuse. This is long overdue, but it is a step in the right direction. The extension of Ofcom’s powers is key in making sure that there is an ability for action to be taken more quickly as new threats emerge.
Whilst this announcement is exactly what is needed to start to tackle online abuse, we look forward to seeing the full response in the spring. In addition to this move to further regulate our online spaces, we also need the government to take a leading role in positively reinforcing good digital citizenship. We continue to call on the government to commit to truly investing in digital citizenship education funded through a 1% tax on tech companies.”
43% of girls admit to holding back their opinions on social media for fear of being criticised
If young women and girls don’t feel safe expressing their view and opinions it is incredibly difficult to be an active member of the society and to bring about the change that is necessary to prevent the abuse of women and girls. That’s why we want to take some time to highlight not just Seyi’s passion and drive but her core message:
Self care online is so important
We hope you never need to but if a you are harassed online take a screenshot of abuse immediately - then put that screenshot into a private spreadsheet along with the date, time, website where it took place and how it made you feel at that moment. Even if you don’t take it to the police immediately, this will allow you to keep a clear record and spot any patterns in the behaviour.
Follow Seyi and Glitch at the links below:
Get the Glitch Resources https://fixtheglitch.org/glitchukresources or be part of the movement to #FixTheGlitch online
Glitch Social
Seyi’s Social