The Rise of Online Gender-Based Violence on Transgender Identities

BY AYDAN MACDOUGALL

I could start this article by quoting how many Transgender individuals have thought about taking their lives this year, but I think this poem on online bullying works better.

“It’s dark inside this cold world

The voices are calling out to me
I scream and no one hears a sound
Can anyone hear me?
Can they not see I need help?
They call me names
It hurts deep inside
I try not to let them see the pain it causes me
They push me around
I try to hide the fear inside
But they know I’m scared
They enjoy humiliating me
Why won’t anybody stop them?
It’s dark inside this cold world
The voices are calling out to me
I cry for help but no one seems to come.”
                                                                                                  -Unknown

America remains divided over Transgender rights. Democrats and Republicans continue to politicize Transgender issues to appeal to their voting bases. Yet minimal safeguards are in place to protect Transgender individuals on an online platform. More than 71% of all Transgender and Gender minority individuals have experienced online bullying and harassment. Protecting them should not be a partisan issue. It should be a Human Rights issue.

Online violence against Transgender individuals can manifest in various forms, such as image manipulation, releasing personal information, and hate speech. It's essential to recognize that this hate speech often focuses on their gender identity and physical attributes. Researchers based in the UK and the US investigated over 10 million online social media posts and found that an overwhelming 1.5 million had transphobic and sexist comments. These comments resulted in Transgender individuals having a higher chance of developing damaging coping mechanisms such as self-harming.

Breaches of the privacy and personal data of the Transgender community is becoming more concerning. Transgender individuals are at higher risk of being hacked than their cisgender counterparts. These hacks put them at a greater risk of having their private and personal data leaked to the public, which could compromise their safety and reputation. Public information can also motivate individuals to confront Transgender individuals in person and shift online violence to physical violence. 

Popular social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok continue to lack the necessary online safeguards to protect Transgender users. Reporting mechanisms on these websites need to be revisited. Posts containing hate speech have to be reviewed by an  employee of the social media website before it can be removed. This leaves the door open for the post to circulate and cause harm, while  the employee is still reviewing the post. The cherry on top is that these employees have no jurisdiction to fine users for deploying hate speech. 

Because each social media website's community safety guidelines are flexible, users that spew out hate speech assume that their views are acceptable. Transgender individuals then remain in a constant state of vigilance, which causes fatigue and further distress. Each social media website must be held to the same standard to protect the Transgender community. 

There are a number of ways to protect the Transgender community online. Researchers have called for additional funding for advertising campaigns focusing on Transgender and Gender Minority bullying to bring more attention to the issue. But is that enough to prevent Transgender bullying when such a vast proportion of the community has and is already experiencing this?

We must hold social media websites accountable for their lack of protections for the Transgender community. Websites can easily add online support centres, which could aid Transgender individuals. Increasing the number of service personnel answering calls at these support centres will decrease wait times and reduce self-harming coping mechanisms. This is more important than ever as emerging research indicates that Transgender individuals are more likely to access online support centres than offline ones. 

It is crucial that we hold social media sites responsible for protecting the Transgender community and every other marginalized community. Any form of bullying should not be tolerated in the world today. Maybe then, we won't have to keep reading poems about cries for help.