Harassment of Women on Twitter
On Twitter in the last several months, there’s been an increase in online harassment and cruelty to women who are perceived threats to certain groups’ sense of superiority. The harassment can occur as harassing messages or as the algorithmic context and cadence within which seemingly benign messages are read.
Harassing Messages
Women in the child-bearing age range get harassed about arranged marriages (in cultures where this isn’t a common practice), forced pregnancies and pre-emptive maternity leave (when the woman isn’t pregnant or planning to get pregnant). Increased messaging about hormonal imbalances, menopause and post-menopause create a sense of urgency, paranoia, desperation, shame, fear and a targeted woman’s willingness to comply with the demands of bad actors. The fact that none of these medical phenomena applies to her, specifically, is entirely beyond the bad actors’ point, since facts were never the basis of any of their arguments. Psychological manipulation was. These messages reduce a woman’s worth to her child-bearing and otherwise biological potential, removing her sense of freedom, dignity, autonomy, aspirations and desire. They’re meant to intimidate, silence and stifle the behavior of women, cut their careers short, and deflate their confidence.
Some women get messages online accusing them of being men before. Even if they’re transgender, this is hate speech. It’s a masculinizing reaction to a woman’s normal behavior, meant to discourage her from advocating for her own needs, using her voice, and exercising her right to express herself freely.
Although it’s likely that most online harassment of women originates from men, they aren’t the only ones harassing women online. There are even some female influencers online who appeal to other women’s insecurities and fears to sell products, creating an environment of shame, cruelty and lowered self esteem.
Take Action:
Learn about the mute and block functions on Twitter and mute the harassing words. Unfortunately, if you’re being targeted by someone, you will be re-triggered every time they find a new word or phrase to harass you with.
Algorithmic Context and Cadence of Medical Messages
Another form of online harassment women face on Twitter is not about the messages themselves, but about the context and cadence within which they appear. For example, seemingly benign health-related messages that originate from healthcare workers, therapists, pharmaceutical brands and healthcare organizations who are marketing their products and services can be perceived as harassment depending on their placement in relation to other posts.
As marketers are well aware, the messages one receives online (and offline) affect their thoughts, and thoughts affect actions. Content marketing can be labeled as such by the brand or not. If it’s not labeled and it appears in the feed alongside other posts that seem to be related, it can be misinterpreted. If the same themes of messages appear over time and seem to increase in cadence, the user can experience it as harassment.
The increased occurrence of seemingly benign PSA-style content about cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other mental health and medical issues can create paranoia and increased appetite for risk in targeted social media users. Additionally, increased messaging related to cancer and other terminal diseases has a profound effect on targets’ sense of their own future and assessment of risk. Those who believe their life is coming to an end may be more willing to take highly risky action that aligns with the agenda of the bad actors algorithmically targeting them with messages. A similar phenomenon has been documented in the context of radicalized groups in non-US countries.
The timely and increased occurrence of messaging themed around amnesia, forgetting, forgetfulness and Alzheimer’s disease as a way of encouraging targets to forget the harassment that has been done to them online.
Messages that interfere with a woman’s connection to, and self-control of her own body create isolation, trauma, shame, paranoia, confusion. They can lead her down a costly and time-consuming path of wrong diagnoses which can lessen her ability to perform basic tasks at work and at home.
Take Action:
If a woman has detected that she’s being targeted by medical harassment, she can take action to collect facts and evidence to assess whether there is or is not a reason to worry about her health. Unfortunately it will take time, and the financial and psychological costs of this medical due diligence are quite significant, yet it will help to minimize harms created by medical misinformation and disinformation.
Find healthcare professionals who you can trust on the grounds of their track-record of consistently:
conducting appropriate tests
interpreting those tests accurately,
communicating the results of the tests to you in a manner that you understand
providing an effective plan of action to take care of your health
keeping all of your data private under the most thorough security measures
not accepting bribes or outside influence by individuals or groups other than yourself.
If a healthcare provider fails to do any one of these things effectively, you should find another one. Once you’ve found a healthcare provider you can trust and they’ve done appropriate tests, there is a lower probability that you can be swayed by medical harassment online.
Violent Words
Violent words can be used to harass women and men. They change the context within which other messages are interpreted, and create unwelcome negative distractions which lead to an overall negative experience of the product. The mute function can be used to eliminate violent words from the feed, but if a user is being targeted, each time a new violent word occurs, they’ll be re-triggered. I’ve compiled a list of violent words users can add to the mute list if they choose to reduce the occurrence of violent messages in their feed, and would prefer not to be re-triggered every time a new one occurs.
Take Action:
Copy and paste each of these words into the list one by one, using the following path:
Click on your Twitter profile photo
—> settings and support
—> settings and privacy
—> privacy and safety
—> mute and block
—> muted words
—> add
A forgiver
Abusing
Alzheimer’s
Amnesia
Anti-science
Apocalyptic
Armed
Armed forces
Arms race
Arrest history
Arson
Assassin
Assassination
Assault
Assaulted
At risk
Axe
B***h
Bankruptcy
Battle
Be patient
Bed wetters
Bed wetting
Biggest threats
Bitch
Boil the frog
Breaking point
Brothel
Brutalized
Bullet
Bullies
Buzz
Cake
Cancer
Captured
Cheat
Child porn
Child pornography
Cold world
Collapse
Come out
Coming out
Convict
Convicts
Coup
Crashed
Crashed into
Crime
Criminals
Crusade
Cry
Culling the herd
Cyberattacks
Dead
Deadliest
Deadly
Deadly
Death
Deaths
Deaths
Deepfake
Defeated
Defeating
Demon
Demons
Derail
Derails
Didn’t happen
Disaster
Doesn’t kill you
Don’t remember
Drown
Drowned
Drowning
Drugs
Elephant in the room
Emergency
Evil
Extinction
Extremist
Failed
Fallout
Fat
Fertility
Fire
Fired up
Flee
Force
Forcedtoflee
Forgive
Freed
Freedom
Freedom fighter
Give up
Government trust
Grown-ups
Heart attack
Homebuyers
Hormonal
Hormones
Hormones
Horror
Hostage
Human remains
Hunt them down
Hypersonic
Idiot
Injured
IQ
Killed
Killer
Killing
Knife
Knife attack
Lethal
Lost her life
Lost his life
Lost their lives
Make up your own mind
Manipulate you
Maternity leave
Medical
Mental
Missile
More dangerous to
More than you realize
Most expensive
Mouth breather
Murder
Murdered
Murderer
N*gger
Never be able to escape
Nigger
No hard feelings
Not everyone
Nuclear
Nuke
Nukes
Occupied
Only option
Outofcontext
Outrage
Outraged
Overweight
Pasta
Pathological
Patriot front
Penitentiary
Pimp
PMS
Prison
Prisons
Psy op
Psyop
Quicksand
Rape
Raping
Rebellion
Redneck
Resist
Retire
Retirement
Roasted
Salary
Savage
Savagely
Savages
Scandal
Scapegoat
Security threat
Seized control
Self care
Self-care
Shadow
Shadows
Shoot
Shot
Shut up
Simple life
Sink
Sinking
Smelliest
Soul sucking
Soul-sucking
Sphere of influence
Stab
Stabbed
Stabbing
Starvation
Starve
Starved
Steal
Stolen
Stop believing
Struggles to find
Stupid
Suicidal
Suicide
Survived by
Survivor
Terrorism
Terrorist
The resistance
Theft
Thief
Thieves
Threat
Threaten
Threatening
Thug
Thugs
Torched
Toxic
Tragedy
Tragic
Tragically
Tribal
Tribalism
Trust nobody
Trust the government
Trust your government
Vilify
Violence
Violent
Weapons
Weep
Went missing
Wildfire
Witch
You need
Your forgiveness
Your own country
Why is the harassment of women on Twitter bad for business, you ask? Because if half the world’s population is comprised of women, and they’re getting harassed on Twitter, they’ll stop using it.
Single women within a certain age range have money to spend, and the lure of Twitter as a source of information and inspiration can only be capitalized on if their dignity, autonomy, aspirations and desires are acknowledged and supported. They want to feel good about how they spend their time online, and about what they spend their money on. Brands can’t build a trustful relationship with women and play a meaningful role in their lives, if they meet them in online spaces that diminish their confidence and sense of safety.
Twitter needs a competent Trust and Safety team to protect women from these harms and others, and provide tools to detect, document and attribute the sources of online abuse.