A few months ago, a case is said to have occurred in Hamburg that is now preoccupying the judiciary. A shopkeeper called a police officer a “student pilot”, according to the official’s allegation. What followed: charges of insult, the public prosecutor’s office investigated, the criminal court proceedings will soon start.
Had this episode taken place on the Internet, if the victim had been any woman instead of a police officer, if the insult had been a much more evil word or even a threat of death or rape, the case would probably have turned out differently. Most likely it would have happened: nothing. “Hate on the net usually has no consequence, unfortunately you have to put it that way,” says Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, the organization’s founder Hate aidwho supports victims of online hatred with litigation funding, among other things.
“The platforms have put a lot of money into lobbying in Brussels,” says Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, the founder of the organization Hate Aid.
(Photo: Andrea Heinsohn / oh)
A new representative survey on behalf of Hate Aid and the Alfred Landecker Foundation shows: Digital violence has reached massive proportions in Europe. 91 percent of young adults have seen hatred and agitation on the Internet several times as witnesses. Every second person in the 18 to 35 age group has even been personally affected by digital violence. Across all age groups, more than two thirds of all respondents have been confronted with hatred and agitation on the Internet in their lives. Women in particular are affected and as a consequence censor themselves: 52 percent of the female respondents are increasingly cautious and anonymous through social media for fear of digital attacks. But 35 percent of men are intimidated by the threat of hatred. A total of 2,000 people between the ages of 18 and 80 in all 27 EU member states were surveyed for the study in 2021.
However, unwanted nude photos online, insults or rape threats rarely end up in court. “Twitter and Facebook are in Ireland. A victim from Greece would have to formulate the complaint in English and deliver it in Ireland in a legally secure manner,” says Hodenberg. “It’s expensive, nobody does that.” And most of the victims also shy away from trying to enforce their rights directly against the large social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook or against the porn platforms on which real or fake pictures or videos of women often end up against their will. “The hurdles are too high,” says Hodenberg.
The EU is working on new legislation
In the survey, 80 percent of those questioned say that online platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter are not doing enough to protect against digital violence. More than 90 percent of those surveyed are in favor of reported illegal content being removed more efficiently. 80 percent of those surveyed would like to have a say in the criteria according to which contributions are displayed to them. 84 percent of men and 92 percent of women think that laws are unavoidable or at least desirable to control online platforms.
It is likely that these will come – but it is still unclear what they will look like. The European Union will soon pass the Digital Services Act on this. The European Parliament wants to take a decision on this in December, and there will be a big hearing in Brussels next Tuesday. From next year onwards, the European Council, the Commission and Parliament will jointly negotiate how to proceed with the protection of users in the network and the rights and obligations of platform operators.
Hate Aid is taking part in the process and wants to raise awareness among EU politicians of the victims’ side. “The platforms put a lot of money into lobbying in Brussels,” says Hodenberg. “Of course, they have no interest in the fact that users can better enforce their rights and, for example, object. To do this, they would need better content moderators, better internal processes, and all of that costs money.” One petition from Hate Aid and several other European organizations such as # Não Partilhes from Portugal, Digitalt Ansvar from Denmark or Stop Fisha from France has already collected more than 10,000 signatures. The aim is to better protect women from digital violence, including an EU-wide obligation to remove stolen nude photos from the Internet and a contact point at the platforms in each country that victims can contact in their language, while so far they have mostly only received automated standard responses to complaints. “We’re really not calling for a revolution,” says Hodenberg. “It’s about basic rights of users.”