Misogyny Trips Twitter; Will It Reverse Silicon Valley Sexism?

Which comes first -- acceptance in popular culture or acceptance in digital culture -- isn't the key question. The key is this: Where can brakes most easily and effectively be applied?
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Another day, another social media site rocked by misogyny.

Today's spotlight is on Twitter. Since Wednesday, a UK feminist has been virtually pummeled for leading a campaign to keep women memorialized on bank notes.

2013-07-27-hadleyfreeman.png

By mid-day Saturday, two Twitter employees had responded. The timing seemed late, and the action, sub-optimal. Would the outrage grow, jump across the Atlantic? (Think Texas Sen. Wendy Davis or MotrinMoms of yesteryear.) Or would this be yet another flash-then-gone tempest?

It's not like this is the first time a social site has been in the news this year for misogyny. Or the first time we've talked about it. Here's Jessica Coen from last year:

I never stopped seeing stories of women who were harassed online. Didn't even matter what they were writing about; women are just punished for existing on the internet... there's so much misogyny online that I can barely raise an eyebrow.

And women journalists have to deal with "new forms of harassment, sexist comments, or worse, from social networkers."

2013-07-27-rapeshirt.pngUniversity men see nothing wrong with penning a newspaper column that recommends teaching girlfriends a lesson, explaining: "It's not rape if you shout 'surprise'."

"Slut shaming" has entered our vocabulary, along with new "definitions" of rape: struggle snuggle.

If you really want to feel depressed, read the @everydaysexism project.

Chicken-and-egg?

Which comes first -- acceptance in popular culture or acceptance in digital culture -- isn't the key question.

The key is this: Where can brakes most easily and effectively be applied?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving might make an excellent role model for effecting social change, if language were as clearcut as a breathalyzer test.

It's not. But one thing the offenses do have in common is this: They are both about behavior.

Not an offensive person. Offensive behavior. So ease of reporting that offensive behavior is essential.

That means report a tweet as abusive, not an account. With one click, right beside the retweet button. Ditto Facebook updates. Not as spam. Abuse.

And then act PDQ.

In other words, Silicon Valley, treat your female customers as though you respect us.

There's certainly a history in the Valley that dampens any optimism that this time we've hit a tipping point. Kathy Sierra. #1reasonWhy. Death by 1000 paper cuts. Xeni Jardin on men inventing the internet. Donglegate. Anita Sarkeesian.

Twitter, do you finally recognize that there is a problem?

Late Saturday night, it sounded like their answer was yes.

Twitter had quietly rolled out the ability to report a single tweet using the iPhone Twitter client.

In a statement emailed to the BBC and GigaOm, Twitter promised to extend this functionality to the web and other platforms, but without a timeline.

Reporting. That's half the equation.

The responding PDQ part? That's going to be much harder, as Alex Howard details.

How to create the first digital social space where there are quick, clear, inevitable consequences for advocating sexual violence?

Let's help @Jack and @DickC as they #startChangeHere.

Let's not let this turn into just another day in Silicon Valley.

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