IS SOCIAL MEDIA BECOMING A TOOL FOR HARASSMENT AND VIOLENCE?

By: Haroon Ishaq

Published in Monthly National Transparency magazine. (November 2014)

Looking back at the memories of my friends, the events we celebrated, the pictures we snapped, at the dinner, in the mall, shopping silly things, on a picnic, in the boring class, making fun of a friend, paying a penny to the beggar. Celebrations of birth days, last night posts before the results come out and the latter day’s happy and sad faces: it just feels like a canvas of life where the colors of memories are spread all over the screen. The memories, which I have been sharing for a long time with my friends, were not anywhere else but on the Facebook. At the next moment, these all memories are going to be erased as the sad time has come to say goodbye to Facebook.

Just a moment before I reached the decision, the strong influence of the past compelled me to go through these sentimental, funny and life changing memories embellished with comments and likes on my Facebook profile. This led me to the depth, and there was the day I signed up for the Facebook.

It has been about six years since the time when the young blood was that warm to catch every glance, to hook to every hanger and to test the deepest sensations, Facebook was the window and I on the day was not even able to think what is there beyond the signup screen and even how to look for it. But finally there was a Facebook profile set-up with its old look of a profile picture at the right corner of the screen and everything else was just simple.

After having this simple interface for months with the unguided stunts to make posts, comments, shares, likes and the most of all, the messages. These all I was doing was just to leave a single impression behind, that the things are not going to the end, it kept expanding, with new friends, blind messages, stupid shares and comments. Every single passing day it was increasing in its scope and then finally the day came when, while the expansion remained undeterred but the alarm started ringing.

From this stage now it matters that what is your gender, if you are male the alarm can be just life threats or repeated attempts of hacking the account which might come in various psychologically torturing manners. But if you are woman then the same things can go horrible from life threats, to blackmailing and sexual harassment.

From that day unlike man, woman would come to observe another Facebook. It is also the sky without limits, with the same buddies, straying here and there looking for hooks and blind messages, the same posts, comments and likes with shares are all there, but for the woman this new face of the Facebook is truly scary, with man showing his high affection turning into a killing beast; friend ‘as named by the Facebook’ turns into aliens, messages turn to needles sticking in the heart; hands will lose their ability to post and comment; the buttons of share and like become vague on the vision; comments become the hammers falling on the head again and again. The moment is horrifying when loving and social human beings turn into animals of dangerous natures.

Those lovely messages that greet the morning turn into ill omen. Every alert that notifies of a beloved sharing their affection or their knowledge turns into the notification of expected humiliation, torture, rape or loss of life. Finally the weak and compromising mind decides to quit, and to leave the ocean of love, affection, knowledge and networking, and the Facebook account is deactivated. At the final moment of deactivating the account, Facebook asks the reason that why to leave and among the many options, there is one and almost the hardest one, “I don’t feel safe on Facebook” and it is enough to say.

This is the story which has been emerging with increasing number and intensity, with the skyrocket increase in the use of internet in general and social media in particular where there are tweeter and the Facebook. For an average Pakistani, social media is Facebook or twitter that has shaped into the tool for change as well as the tool for sexual violence which can also lead to real life violence consequently.

There have been such stories of the enthusiast youth who found the limitless social media a place to satisfy their eagerness with its endless possibilities. It initially almost draws the entire youth and keeps spreading to the older generation. When the dangers evolved initially neither the user nor the social thinkers and the legal system were able to answer it. But now the cases are turning into real life incidents and also there is activism against it and laws are under consideration.

Byte for All (B4A) is an Islamabad-based human rights organization and think tank working particularly to end the technology-driven gender-based violence and to ensure the civil rights while using the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

The B4A started a flagship project titled “Take Back The Tech: to end violence against women!” that turned into a vibrant campaign in Pakistan. The project aims to combat violence against women and girls using the internet and also bring gender equality by increased participation of women in the strategic use of ICTs.

It has recently conducted three case studies of woman given pseudonyms Aisha, Bayhaya and Baaghi. Three of the cases shared a similar theme where the violence with certain reasons was rooted in the real time but as it shifted to the social media, the nature of the cases changed, reflecting the online violence against women in Pakistan.

Among these cases, for Aisha the mater went a bit different. According to the details in the case study made public by the B4A on its website, the 17-year-old girl of a low income family in southern Punjab was in her 15 when she was blackmailed by three teenagers using a videotape of her alleged intercourse with her friend. The video then became viral as the blackmailers put it over the social media to punish her. Belonging from a lower income family with no resources for computer and internet, she and no one else in her family had ever used the social media but the technology was used by the offenders initially to video-tap her and then making it public over the Facebook which increased the effect of the offence.

While the two other cases primarily portray the incidents where harassment happens on the social media and the consequences are replicated on the ground. Which give us an insight that, how the common persons in our surroundings with a normal outlay show an inhuman face on the internet. It includes the sexual harassment, cyber bullying and violent psychological or physical attacks which are sexualized against the woman on the basis of political thoughts, religious beliefs and similar counter-narratives.

These stories also show that how in the same case under the same offence men and women in Pakistan are deemed to face different degree of consequences, where the latter is the most vulnerable while the former enjoys immunity.

The thirty-nine-year-old single lady chose for herself, the pseudonym of Bayhaya meaning ‘Shameless’ that signifies the offence made against her. Being among the activists in her 16, she for the first time took part in a street protest in 1979 against the Hadood Ordinance by General Zia-ul-Haq. At that time when the media was limited to the print and radio, she was unaware of her future as a distinguished social activist in the time of internet and social media, where neither the protests are the same or the tools used by the oppressors to stop the narrative of the masses.

Recently before the incident of her harassment on social media, she actively participated in many rights groups’ campaigns. She remained intensely active in agitation on various issues including the protests after the much highlighted issue of Mukhtara Mai and the imposition of emergency by President General Pervez Musharraf in 2007. She also took part in the campaign against the blasphemy laws after the killing of former Governor of Punjab Salmaan Taseer. Contrary to the current aggression against her, none of these activism led her to such troublesome consequences, which was ignited, through the dynamic effects of the social media.

Her story got a turn when her stance over the issue of freedom of expression and the religious minorities’ rights were given coverage by a media organization. Her views were later promoted over the social media including Facebook and twitter, where they become viral and the instant effect of social media in promoting her views became the trigger for the violence against her. She with her family and the co-workers were publicly harassed and consistently threatened of rape and death. The inflamed groups started issuing fatwa and denouncing her and colleagues with allegation of blasphemy. In order to incite public sentiments to harm them pictures with arrow pointing to them and their address were released on the internet.

Finally these all led her to deactivate her Facebook and Twitter accounts and remain away from her work and maintain a low profile especially in her expression of thoughts. Though she was not alone to face such consequences, the women of her male companions who were not part of her campaign were also harassed and threatened.

The third case study by B4A represents religious aspect along with the real life violence where the counter narrative over the internet is stopped by using the allegation of blasphemy to make the opponents potential victims of the social violence that led to the real life attacks and sexual harassment.

The case is about a well-educated and professional married woman who used the emerging tools of social media and blogging to convey her critical views over countries politics and social violence advocating human rights specially women rights, religious rights for minorities and the strengthening of democracy.

The targeted women chose for her the name of Baaghi (meaning rebel) as she thought that it was her rebel nature of personality which led her to this stage of life and also made her to face such consequences. Threats of rape, murder in hundred massages, mails, comments, posts and tweets became a nightmare for her. On her Facebook and Twitter accounts and blog she received life threats, graphic abuse and the allegations of being a blasphemer, anti-Islam, Indian agent and a prostitute.

These acts of harassment and life threats were eventually getting into outer space from the online media. This started initially with her daughter’s account being hacked, that was followed by the events of circulation of her photographs morphed on the bodies of porn stars and the creation of fake accounts on her name with her pictures.

While these all were done on social media, the threat to her and her family was actualized, first on a blog post their private details were made public. The posts included official certificates and identity cards, family pictures, address of the whole family including the in-laws. Thus making them identified, self-proclaimed religious ruling was issued against her and her family, calling for them to be shoot at sight, which was actualized just a month later. She and her husband survived a gun attack while traveling in their car. In the investigation it emerged that there was a single eyewitness of the attack who was latter found dead mysteriously.

These cases represent the issues faced by the average Pakistani women either using social media or are living in the environment where internet has its sharp influence in social affairs. These incidents raise certain apprehensions and also draw concerns about certain issues showing that the social media is being used effectively to incite real time violence. The tools of threats, harassment and blackmailing are being used against the women without any restrictions.

Among the survivors are those who were the advocates against such issues but for them the counter attacks are so fatal that they were unable to stand in front of them. Their resistance could invoke any kind of violence on the ground, from personal attacks to mass violence. Assuming the outcome of the confrontation, many would rather opt for other tools to counter this fatal use of social media which is going undeterred against the society itself.

What are the tools and techniques that progressive or persons with counter narrative should use? Initially the option to get out of the Facebook or switching for fake ids is an immediate answer by many. This might resolve the initial tension and even it might be necessary for the cure of harassment and psychological trauma but it creates many other social issues of the same nature and higher intensity. 

Looking around, there are women in their veils, some half covered and some covered from their head to toe, locked in their houses and if getting out for studies or shopping or recreation, are always surrounded by a known or an unknown fear. This is what we are observing here. With these cases and the similar experiences on daily basis, over the internet, on Facebook, on twitter, the banned YouTube and many of the online forums.

It is not much different; on one hand, in the real life a scared girl cutting off her social contacts, locking herself in her house, who has abandoned her education or work while on the other hand there is the girl, deactivating her account, remaining disconnected from the world of networking and communication. In both acts there is the same girl who limits herself because she was harassed, blackmailed or received life threats.