Is There Collective Responsibility for Misogyny Perpetrated on Social Media?

Abstract

Women, particularly those who work in public positions (such as journalists, politicians, celebrities, activists) are subject to disproportionate amounts of abuse on social media platforms such as Twitter. This abuse occurs in a landscape that those platforms designed and that they maintain. Focusing in particular on Twitter, as typical of the kind of platform we are interested in, this chapter argues that it is the platform, not (usually) the individuals who use it, that bears collective responsibility as a corporate agent for misogyny. Social media platforms, however, should not overstep the prevention of misogyny into interference in open political debates.