Refuge: Social media companies failing to protect women and girls

New research from specialist domestic abuse organisation Refuge has revealed over half of online domestic abuse survivors have not received a response to their reports from social media companies.

53% of survivors interviewed by Refuge said they received no response from social media platforms after reporting abuse and harassment taking place on their sites. 41% of survivors said they were unlikely to report abuse to platforms again as a result of this negative experience.

Refuge has therefore called on the government to bring the Online Safety Bill back to Parliament quickly and demonstrate its commitment to tackling online violence against women and girls.

The Bill, which is currently awaiting its final day of report stage in the Commons, is at real risk of “timing out”, which Refuge say would be a “huge missed opportunity to work towards the necessary regulation of online spaces”.

Domestic abuse facilitated through technology– known as tech abuse – is becoming increasingly common, with the number of survivors supported by Refuge’s specialist tech abuse team rising by 258% between 2018 and 2022.

65% of those interviewed said that the tech abuse they had experienced was from a former partner, illustrating how technology has allowed abusers to continue to harass and intimidate survivors after separation – often at distance – for many months or years.

Many perpetrators also enlist others’ “support” in the abuse – 35% of survivors Refuge interviewed reported that the friends or family of their partner or former partner conducted abuse online.

“The threats, stalking and harassment my ex-partner carried out on social media left me fearing for my life,” said Paula*, a survivor of tech abuse, continuing:

“I had to move house as he made my address public and was threatening to harm me daily.

It took six attempts at contacting Facebook before I even got a response – all the while my life had been turned upside down. It was disappointing that, even when they acknowledged that the posts violated their Community Standards, Facebook still took four months to remove them.

Social media sites are a lifeline for so many survivors, but I feel like I can’t trust them anymore. Much more needs to be done so no more women experience what I did.”

Refuge’s survey of survivors of tech abuse found that 95% were not satisfied with the support they received from the social media company they reported abusive content to. The survey also found that the most common platforms for online abuse were Meta channels Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Refuge launched the #MarkedAsUnsafe campaign on 11^th October 2022. The organisation and its supporters have urged the government to include a violence against women and girls Code of Practice in the Online Safety Bill.

They are now calling for the Bill to return to Parliament as a matter of priority to ensure that important measures are included in the Bill, at the soonest possible opportunity, to protect thousands of women and girls daily from online harms. Refuge also wants to see coercive control included as a priority offence in the Bill, meaning social media companies would have a duty to both prevent and respond to this crime.

Jess Eagelton, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Refuge, said social media companies have for far too long been “marking their own homework” regarding online abuse, something that has “led to terrible outcomes for survivors”:

“The Code of Practice Refuge has drafted, alongside sector partners, would address the poor response our tech abuse team sees time and time again, giving social media companies a robust set of policies to tackle online violence against women and girls.

We urge the government to bring back the Online Safety Bill as a matter of urgency to show their commitment to ensuring women and girls’ safety, and to include our Code of Practice to hold social media companies to account.”