Regulating social media to prevent violence against women from happening

Abstract

The boom that social networks have had in recent years calls for reflection on the need to regulate the content that is shared on them. Women, especially girls and teenagers, suffer harder experiences of digital violence through social networks. In this paper we review the digital violence of which women are victims and its effects —both individually and for society, and even the possibility of violence in real life—. A review is also made of the main strategies that have been implemented to regulate social networks, using the gender perspective as an analysis tool. Content moderation, whether done by algorithms or human beings, is a necessary and difficult task. Going through its components and its difficulties, the paper makes it easier to understand the issues of moderation —especially considering the principles of freedom of expression— and the challenges for regulation, attribution of responsibilities and, more importantly, for the protection of vulnerable groups such as women.