Cox’s death exposes unbridled misogyny against women online

Former Labour Party leader and Tanaiste Joan Burton says vile abuse which Jo Cox received is common in Irish politics

IT WAS with shock and sadness that I learned of the death this week of Labour Party MP, Jo Cox (inset).

My thoughts first and foremost are with Jo’s husband Brendan and their two young children, and on behalf of the Irish Labour Party, I would like to extend my sympathies to them.

As a society we need to have a frank and candid discussion about putting an end to the abuse women politicians are subjected to on social media.

Many barriers already exist which make it difficult for women to become active in politics. The growing issue of online abuse is only adding to this problem.

We have learnt that Cox had been receiving threatening and abusive hate mail for months prior to her murder on Thursday, to such an extent that consideration was being given to increasing her security.

Unfortunately, this story of abuse is all too familiar in politics today. The time has come for us to look at how we, as a society, treat our politicians and those who put themselves forward to serve in public life.

It seems to be that women politicians in particular are subjected to a high level of threatening behaviour, be it online, behind anonymous Twitter accounts or physically in person.

We have to ask ourselves whether the attack on Jo Cox can be divorced from such abusive behaviour. Is this the kind of society we want to live in?

I myself have seen firsthand the vile abuse women politicians are subjected to on social media.

Two of my former colleagues, Senator Mairia Cahill and Lorraine Higgins, continuously received hateful and inexcusable abuse online.

There is no doubt the abuse women politicians receive online is unbridled misogyny.

Some male candidates in the recent General Election suffered abuse on social media, however the majority of those abused were women candidates.

We have to address why, in particular, women politicians are targeted and what can be done to end this.

We have to tackle the underlying misogyny in our society which leads some to think it is acceptable to abuse women politicians in such a disgraceful fashion.

The Guardian newspaper recently ran an online discussion called Web We Want. Analysis showed eight out of 10 abusive comments were directed at women.

The Guardian commentator Owen Jones recently wrote that the he is aware of women colleagues in the media who frequently turn down TV appearances for fear of being abused online over how they look.

I tried to stay away from social media as much possible during the election because of the level of hate online. Some colleagues of mine were actually forced to delete their social media platforms because of the abuse they were receiving.

This puts those politicians at a disadvantage because social media has become such an intrinsic medium in the modern age for communicating and engaging with the electorate. Any controls over free comments are obviously controversial and difficult, but racist and homophobic remarks are properly subject to controls in the published media. However, we have to put an end to people being allowed to get away with abusing others online. Former senator Lorraine Higgins proposed extensive legislation to tackle online abuse. She called on social media companies to take a more active stance in stopping people from abusing others online. This can be done by social media companies being more proactive in deleting abusive accounts.

A particular problem online is that people can hide their true identity by having anonymous social media accounts, which makes it easier for them to abuse people.

Lorraine also proposed that it becomes an offence for anyone to issue a message online, calling on someone to self-harm or take their own life.

Introducing these measures would go some way towards dissuading and punishing online abuse.

The political system is already stacked against women. Despite us now having the highest amount of women TDs in the history of the State, not enough women sit at Cabinet. We are yet to have our first woman Taoiseach.

Politics is a tough business. It is an honourable and important endeavour. It requires a huge amount of stamina and commitment.

I feel that politics in Ireland, and in general, is rapidly becoming tarnished by poisonous political rhetoric.

Those in positions of authority need to be mindful of the rhetoric they choose to deploy. Spurring people on with violent language can only have damaging repercussions.

We can begin by tackling this problem by confronting online abuse now before it becomes an even bigger problem and causes more harm to women politicians in Ireland and elsewhere.

‘Colleagues were actually forced to delete their social media accounts’