Social Media Is A Double-Edged Sword For Indian Women Politicians: Lawyer Mishi Choudhary Explains Why

The United Kingdom recently concluded a high-stakes general election, which proved particularly challenging for female candidates. Several women leaders including Angela Rayner and Jess Phillips were targeted by stalkers, online trolls, or also the circulation of deepfake pornography, according to reports. This disturbing trend is not limited to the UK; it mirrors a grave concern faced by women in politics across the globe. In India, powerful figures like Smriti Irani, Mahua Moitra, Mayawati, and more have been harassed for everything from their political stances to their personal lives and also their appearance. 

These experiences highlight the pervasive issue of gendered harassment and lack of accountability online. SheThePeople spoke to Mishi Choudhary, founder and legal director of Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), India, a non-profit organisation that works for the protection of freedom and safety in the digital world. She cited crucial data that shed light on the severity of online harassment faced by Indian women in politics, emphasising the urgent need for systemic change.

Mishi Choudhary On Online Trolling Faced By Women Politicians

From your experience, how does the volume and nature of online trolling differ for women politicians and journalists compared to their male counterparts during election periods?

Unlike the US where a database tracking online attacks on women is run by Princeton University and Antidefamation League, India's data is mostly anecdotal but matches the global trend. Whether it is journalists like Barkha Dutt or Rana Ayub, politicians like Smriti Irani, Nirmala Sitharaman, or Mohua Moitra or media personalities or activists, women receive much harsher treatment online especially when they are active in public life. The anonymity offered by the Internet and/or the support of powerful political cheerleaders ensure that the language of the street and threats are used freely to target women.

We do have a report from Amnesty International called Troll Patrol India: Exposing Online Abuse Faced by Women Politicians in India, which analysed more than 114,000 tweets sent to 95 women politicians in the three months during and after last year’s general elections in India. The research found that women are targeted with abuse online not just for their opinions - but also for various identities, such as gender, religion, caste, and marital status.

Online expressions of political opinions are often met with a flurry of hateful, abusive and harassing responses seemingly aimed at intimidating the speakers into silence, though these have also been known to snowball into acts of real-world violence. Though the Internet has proved over time to be a powerful enabler of free expression, facilitating instant and inexpensive exchange of information across borders, it also presents an equal
number of opportunities for those so inclined to transform their speech platforms into vehicles of harassment.

Individuals are drawn into digital environments that are increasingly felt as necessary to ordinary social existence, only to find themselves treated as objects in a social theatre of aggression and denigration. They often find themselves at the receiving end of sustained abuse, threats and debasement either on grounds of their actual or perceived characteristics or over their expression of ideas and convictions that stand at odds with those of others. The result, for them, can be as much a form of censorship and silence as an opportunity for freedom and self-development through learning and expression.

What are the most common forms of online harassment that women politicians and journalists face? How do these forms differ from those faced by men?

The Internet enables what Dr John Suler, professor of psychology at Rider University, calls the “online disinhibition effect” - best described as the nature of Internet interactions in which people say and do things that they never would say or do offline. Some of this is benign but most of it now is toxic. This is amplified by folks in power like the Bharatiya Janata Party IT cell and other political parties.

Research as well as complaints that SFLC.in have received found alarming rates of violence, harassment and threats, with a disproportionate effect on women and minorities. Platform companies often have complicated take-down mechanisms and procedures, and don't address complaints in time leading to more frustration than grievance redress. The stereotypes and the offensive words used are many times not considered to be violative of platform policies. The ease of access to GenAI tools has now added a complex mix to an already fraught environment.

In your opinion, how effective are current legal measures in protecting women politicians and journalists from online trolling? What improvements or additional measures would you recommend?

It must be borne in mind that over-reliance on legal-centric responses may come at the cost of collaterally impacting legitimate and permissible free speech, making it essential to emphasize non-state responses to the issue. We already have enough laws in existence if the authorities are willing to take the problem seriously.

How SFLC Helps

SFLC.in, in collaboration with UNESCO, launched a guide titled ‘How To Defend Your Online Spaces Against Online Gender-Based Violence’. This guide aims to empower users to recognize and combat various forms of online abuse. Available in English, Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam, it equips citizens with knowledge and resources to address offences including sexual harassment, stalking, hate speech, and more. That is a great source that can address all the questions raised here. Click here for the guide.