Tara Moss in Canberra to address cyberhate
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Cyberhate and cyberviolence is something every women who is online should be worried about.
TV presenter, human rights advocate and author Tara Moss will create a national conversation through Women in Media at the National Press Club next month.
Since my family and I became the subjects of an orchestrated online hate campaign in 2013, I started asking questions about cyberhate.
Who were these trolls and what did they want? As you’ll see in this video and article, the answers are shocking.
I am not alone. The numbers of people enduring cyberhate are extremely high. According to data from the Pew Centre, “roughly four-in-ten Americans have personally experienced online harassment, and 62 percent consider it a major problem.”
There’s no reason to believe the situation is any different in other nations. Two years ago the UN Broadband Commission cited similarly alarming statistics and called for “a worldwide wakeup call”.
Among many other impacts, trolls are wrecking lives and causing people – especially women – to harm themselves, lose their jobs and die by suicide. This is a critical and underreported global issue.
It is also an issue pertinent to all women working in the media.
Women in Media’s 2016 Mates Over Merit report showed “41 percent of respondents have experienced harassment, bullying and trolling on social media, from mild instances to death threats and stalking.”
What impact does this have on women? Research by UNSW academic Dr Emma Jane indicates targets of online misogyny endure “many layers of suffering”. Some of these include: victims contemplating, threatening, or attempting suicide, career derailment, financial losses, long-term psychological impacts, and real-life bodily harm.
ABC Cyberhate documentary producer, human rights advocate and author Tara Moss will address the issue directly when she delivers a National Press Club Address for Women in Media on Wednesday 9 August.
According to Tara, the time has come to face the issue.
She says Australia experienced a first when former Prime Minister Julia Gillard publicly acknowledged that if women want to participate in public or political life they must expect almost daily rape and death threats.
Tara says that while people of all genders and occupations receive online abuse – including an estimated three-quarters of Australians under 30 – women in the media are now recognised as the targets of particularly gendered and sexually violent abuse.
Tara will address the online abuse faced by women in the media today, from doxing to dick pics, rape threats and so-called ‘revenge porn’, as well as the broader impacts of cyberhate on the community, our mental health, politics and democracy itself.
She will piece together how we got here, and makes a case for why a fairer Internet is worth fighting for.
Both Tara and I will take part in a panel discussion for a Women in Media networking night which promises to deliver frank assessments on how best to counter the psychological threat that lurks behind every keyboard and social media app.
Taking place at the National Press Club on the evening of Wednesday 9 August the session will be moderated by Triple J Hack’s Shalailah Medhora and will hear from Nigel Phair – Director of the Centre for Internet Safety at the University Canberra and influential analyst on the intersection of technology, crime and society.
the essentials
What: Tara Moss at The National Press Club
When: Wednesday 9 August
Where: The National Press Club, 16 National Circuit, Barton
Tickets: Available here
The Women in Media networking night takes place at the National Press Club from 6.30 on Wednesday the 9th of August. Tickets are available here.
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