Voice, Visibility and Variety of Viciousness: A Malaysian Study on Women's Lived Realities on Social Media

"Women constitute at least 40 percent of Malaysia's online population yet much is to be known about their experience in exercising their freedom of expression and participation."

This is the fourth study on internet rights by Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (EMPOWER) under the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)'s Advocacy for Change through Technology in India, Malaysia and Pakistan (APC-IMPACT) project. It builds on EMPOWER's previous research on online freedom of expression, freedom of information, and freedom of assembly and association. It is a feminist response to increased instances of bullying and harassment on social media, seeking better understanding of how these forms of technology-related gender-based violence manifest in the Malaysian context. This study inquires: How safe is it for women in Malaysia to have voice and visibility online? What forms of violence do they face in exercising their freedom of expression and participation, particularly on social media, where they are most active? And it is one thing to worry about one's safety against state oppression, but what about safety against one's own peers?

This study shows how having voice and visibility on social media can bring about some of the most traumatic experiences for women. For example, EMPOWER reports that, in March 2015, Aishah Tajuddin, a video presenter for the local online satirical programme 'Kupas', received rape and death threats following an episode mocking the Kelantan state government for championing hudud law (Muslim criminal law). Aishah faced intense condemnation and harassment online, which led the programme owner to remove the episode from YouTube. Aishah herself left the programme and has not returned to 'Kupas' or any other online video shows. Numerous cases of technology-related violence have since been reported in the media. However, they mostly involve public figures, while cases affecting ordinary people remain largely ignored. What these cases have in common is the gendered nature of the violence as it occurs on social media, but media reports provide little insight as to why and how this phenomenon is happening. This study is designed to address that information gap.

Thus, the study prioritises voices of ordinary citizens (15 women, most of whom were between 20 and 40 years of age) who are not part of any established political organisation. They include women from marginalised and minority communities - e.g., Muslim women, queer and transwomen, and indigenous women - whose lived realities are recorded in this study. Interviews and observations on social media were conducted between March and July 2017, with a focus on 4 main areas of questioning: ownership and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), access to internet services, social media usage and engagement behaviours, and experience of bullying and harassment on social media.

From these women's stories, the reader learns, for example, that 8 of the 15 women explicitly mentioned religion as a force they encounter on social media - whether directly or indirectly (through a public morality shaped by religio-cultural norms). Thus, one barrier to tackling the problem of gender-based violence is the imposition of religious morality on many women's lives. "[A]s long as the country's ruling party and its contenders use religion as a vehicle to advance their political agenda, people's lives will continue to be impacted and women, Muslim and others, will continue to face violence on the internet while perpetrators continue to enjoy their impunity. Civil society must therefore demand the government and political parties to end the politicisation of religion in Malaysia as its effects are felt in all aspects of every day life."

Additional selected findings that emerged from the interviews:

• The cost of getting online - Whether on pre-paid or post-paid services, using less than 10GB or more than 50GB of data, the women feel internet service is expensive and that there is nothing they can do about it. All of the women in this study access the internet by smartphone, where they are most active.
• Social media of choice - In Malaysia, the most popular internet-based text messaging application is WhatsApp. All the respondents are also on Facebook. Instagram is the second most used social media among the respondents with 11 (73%) of them on the platform. The third is Twitter, where 9 (60%) of them are active.
• Daily ICT routines - Apart from building relationships and support networks, social media is also an important source of information. At least9 (60%) of respondents said they rely on social media for news.

Another finding is that the line between offline and online is greatly blurred. As one respondent of this study said, "Being online is like a limb to me now. It's so vital to my life." But falling far behind this technological revolution is a political recognition of the internet as a key means by which people can exercise and enjoy their human rights. Even though at least 78% of the country's population is already connected (and internet penetration in Malaysia is expected to increase to about 195% by 2025), policy around access to the internet is still predominantly framed as economic infrastructure and opportunity. Issues such as political participation, human rights, and gender equality are not adequately examined, even when "[i]t became evident that people's expression and participation in online conversations about national politics were ever more surveilled and systematically censored by the government." EMPOWER worries: "Instead of seeing positive reform to laws that govern the internet, we see outdated and repressive laws that violate basic freedoms offline being applied online..."

On the other hand, EMPOWER finds that Malaysian laws are far from adequate to protect women from all the various forms of violence. APC research indicates that mistrust and lack of confidence among women towards the criminal justice system form the first barrier in women seeking legal redress. Even in cases where they do, instances of gender-based violence, more so when it happens online, are often triviliased as "not real". The perception of gender-based violence as a private act remains prevalent, especially when it happens within private messages or the women's own social network. "To ensure effective legal redress and access to justice for women in all spheres of life, the government must first recognise gender-based violence as a form of targeted violence that has its roots in discriminatory treatment against women based on their gender. Government must also recognise that gender-based violence online brings about the same, if not greater, harmful effect and impact on women, and perpetrators cannot be allowed such impunity....The government and lawmakers should consult with relevant civil society groups to ensure existing and proposed laws are in accordance with international human rights standards, to ensure, among other things, women's freedom of expression and participation online."

A holistic approach towards upholding and protecting women's human rights in Malaysia also involves channeling efforts into making avenues for legal recourse more accessible and affordable to women. Social media platform providers are placed in a unique situation where they have the capacity to moderate content, rendering it more cost-effective to seek redress from them, i.e., request to remove a certain violating material. Furthermore, EMPOWER urges platform owners to update their community operations protocols and standards to comply with human rights standards and prioritise reports of bullying and harassment for strict and swift action. And in cases where the removal of selected posts does not resolve the problem of harassment, it is suggested that platform owners consider account termination as a remedy.

EMPOWER goes on to suggest that the government, working closely with the private sector and civil society, must look to forming a long-term plan to shape a Malaysian online citizenry that is respectful of human rights. This might include offering rights-based digital literacy programmes in schools, with a curriculum that goes beyond teaching technical skills to educating young people that girls too must be able to participate in society and make life choices using technology without fear of violence. The organisation also urges that content in the curriculum directly addresses issues of bullying and harassment in Malaysia, including that experienced by transgenders and other marginalised groups.