Last week the Online Safety Bill was introduced to parliament and began its journey to becoming law. Thanks to your support, we’ve secured some incredible wins - raising awareness of the gendered nature of online abuse and influencing multiple parliamentary committees, who made recommendations to strengthen the law.
But we were deeply disappointed to find that in 225 pages of legislation, the words ‘women’, ‘girls’ or ‘gender’ are not mentioned a single time. Until violence against women and girls is named in the Online Safety Bill, it will not go anywhere near far enough to address our needs.
We are also concerned that this law will not do enough to address the racist and sexist abuse that means Black women are disproportionately targeted.
Instead of naming violence against women and girls on the face of the Bill, the government has introduced new criminal offences for cyberflashing and rape threats. But criminalising these harms narrowly focuses on individual perpetrators - letting the tech platforms that profit from this abuse off the hook.
This is not a problem that can be solved by the criminal justice system. It’s bigger than that - our world has moved online and our online experiences are completely intertwined with our daily lives. This Bill is about regulating the platforms that profit from our online activity, including the abuse of women and girls. This issue must be laid at the door of tech companies to address, so they are held accountable.
CLICK HERE to tweet or email your MP and ask them to take action.
Thank you for your solidarity and support.