OVAW and hate

The social construction of online violence is flawed, as is the absence of appropriate regulation and enforcement. The (mis)perception that gender-based hate, both offline and online, is something incidental and particular to some women only, rather than occurring every day, on a large scale, and happening to women from a variety of demographics, is commonplace. Law certainly has a central role to play in addressing online misogyny. The continual gender-bias of the law — spanning its substantive provisions, procedural aspects, and legal actors — poses limitations to the transformative effects of any legal reform in this area. Any comprehensive legal response needs to take account of two concurrent factors characterising online misogyny — its gender-based nature and online manifestations. The substantive provisions which could be retro-fitted to potentially address online text-based abuses all have significantly high thresholds for prosecution — as such, it is therefore time for a refreshed, alternative approach which criminalises disruptive behaviour online.