<p class="BasicParagraph">
[ImageLibrary##1024627/Any##Description¬Caroline Criado-Perez was
at the front of a storm of Twitter abuse last month]
<p class="BasicParagraph">Rape threats, death threats, vile
insults: Caroline Criado-Perez, 29, was at the front of a storm of
Twitter abuse last month. Next came a petition for tighter controls
on the social network site (signed by over 100,000 people). Now a
'report abuse' button has been introduced. Great! But it's not over
yet, says Caroline. She's still fighting back - and here she
explains why you should too.
<p class="BasicParagraph">**Caroline's
Experience**
The psychological fall-out from the episode is still unravelling. I walk around feeling like a pressure-cooker - about to blow at any moment. And it takes so little for this to happen, for me to cry, or to scream. And there seems to be a never-ending stream of people who want to be that straw that breaks my back - that new person who's made it their task for the day to ruin mine. So while the media isn't focusing on the story so intensely now, the intensity hasn't left my head - or my Twitter feed.
<p class="BasicParagraph">The week it all started, back in late
July, I had my looks, my pubic hair, my intelligence and my
cleanliness repeatedly discussed - and not in a good way. I was
added to a Twitter list called "Enemies of the Internet" and
compared to China. People popped up on my Twitter feed on a daily
basis to call me a bitch, a slut, a sex-starved lesbian - these
were not meant as compliments. I received explicit and violent rape
and death threats.
<p class="BasicParagraph">
[ImageLibrary##1024625/Any##Description¬Caroline Criado-Perez
delivers a petition to the Bank of England to ensure women appear
on banknotes]
<p class="BasicParagraph">Why? I'd been campaigning hard against
the Bank of England's decision to remove historical women from
banknotes - and on 24 July we won, a huge public institution
was forced to listen to the people. The people had said no to all
male banknotes, no to unaccountable decision-making - and after
multiple exchanges of legal letters, consistent pressure from the
media, and over 35,000 people signing a petition, the Bank of
England recognised that, ultimately, the people could hold it to
account. A woman, aside from the queen, would remain on our money -
Jane Austen was announced as the new face of the £10 note. It was
an incredible day.
<p class="BasicParagraph">But it was a day that swiftly led to some
of the worst moments of my life. I couldn't eat, I barely slept, I
was shuttled from one newsroom to the next, all the while my phone
and mind buzzing with the latest threat to find me, to rape me, to
mutilate me, and to kill me. What people thought was my home
address was posted all over the internet, using the lethal
combination of ask.fm and Twitter; this didn't feel like a game. It
felt like they were trying to hunt me down.
<p class="BasicParagraph">People who stood up for me started to
face the same. The Labour MP Stella Creasy, who had supported me
through the banknotes campaign, had accounts set up in her honour -
with names like "@killcreasy". One of the most disturbing featured
a photo of a masked man wielding a knife, telling her this picture
would be what she saw when she woke up.
<p class="BasicParagraph">The threats started to spread like
wildfire - it felt like Twitter and ask.fm were vomiting misogyny
from all corners, directed at any woman that got in their way. Mary
Beard, Grace Dent, India Knight: all these women received threats
in the wake of the abuse directed at me.
<p class="BasicParagraph">Beyond the rape threats and the outright
illegal abuse, I became public property. My reactions and actions
were policed. I was found wanting. I wasn't calm enough or angry
enough. Then on Sunday 4 August, #TwitterSilence day (a 24hr
boycott against the trolls) I wasn't silent enough. I was grateful
for the mark of solidarity -- but the day wasn't for me. I wanted
to shout back - and given that was a day I received three death
threats, I'm glad I did, I needed to. It meant I could reach out
for help and support. To some though, my decision to keep tweeting
made me "ungrateful"; to others "my" boycott idea was stupid. Both
camps felt it was important I knew their position.
<p class="BasicParagraph">
[ImageLibrary##1024624/Any##Description¬Caroline Criado-Perez poses
with the Governor of the Bank of England among others as they
unveil the new ten pound banknote]
<p class="BasicParagraph">Throughout the ordeal I received regular
tweets telling me not to "feed the trolls" by highlighting the
abuse. By shouting back, this was, apparently, what I was doing. As
time went on, these demands that I shut up became more aggressive
and insistent. If I persisted in responding, screencapping,
tweeting, I deserved everything I got. Indeed, I probably liked it,
"fame-hungry whore" that I clearly was.
<p class="BasicParagraph">When people ask me what I think drives
people to the type of abuse I received, it is the tweets that told
me to put up and pipe down that I think of. The ones that called me
attention-seeking, told me I deserved it, and policed my reaction,
rather than the men making the threats.
<p class="BasicParagraph">Because these tweets reflect the society
we live in, and it's a culture that teaches women not to get raped,
rather than teaching men not to rape. It's a society where women
are regularly seen in the media (preferably with no clothes on),
but seldom heard - and when they are heard it's usually as victims.
And where a public institution like the Bank of England thinks
nothing of wiping women off the face of banknotes.
<p class="BasicParagraph">
[ImageLibrary##1024626/Any##Description¬Caroline Criado-Perez aka
Rosalind Franklin, Katie McCracken as George Eliot, Broadcaster
Vicki Beeching as Boudica and Lucy Holmes as Emily Wilding
Davison]
<p class="BasicParagraph">There are signs things are improving -
Twitter introducing a 'report abuse' button will hopefully be the
first step of many that lead to a better online environment for
women. But ultimately, all that the police and Twitter can do is
deal with the symptoms. There will inevitably - and rightly - be
some soul-searching into why it's happening in the first place, and
what we can do to stop it. But there is something we can all start
doing right now to fight back.
<p class="BasicParagraph">Let's challenge, let's shout out when
things are wrong, and shout back at those who try to shut us up.
And let's do all this in the knowledge that, if we stand together,
if we keep shouting out when things are wrong, change will
come.
