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When the country went into lockdown last year, research group Te Pūnaha Matatini at Auckland University noticed a sharp increase in Covid-19 specific disinformation.
This included what is considered ‘dangerous speech’ – talk around gun control, anti-Māori sentiment, anti-LGBTQIA+, conservative family ideals and structure, misogyny, and anti-immigration. All was related to far-right ideologies and white supremacy groups, and a lot of it US-based.
Te Pūnaha Matatini raised concerns this was a ‘kind of Trojan Horse’ trying to normalise and entrench these far-right ideologies in this country, which posed significant threats to ‘social cohesion, freedom of expression, inclusion and safety’. There has also been a big increase in the amount of online misogyny aimed at Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, other women politicians and women in positions of authority.
A recent Australian Government report ‘Women in the spotlight: Women’s experiences with online abuse in their working lives’ found female politicians and media personalities were targeted for gender, appearance or being working mothers. A third of Australian working women with an online presence had also been targeted, mostly by strangers on social media, and mostly on Facebook.
Facebook is Rodney Local Board deputy chair Beth Houlbrooke’s platform of choice, and she saw a big increase in nastiness during lockdowns, mostly around comments on her physical appearance. She did a lot of blocking and is rethinking how much time she spends online. She is concerned other local women could be put off public office after seeing the comments.
Labour-list MP Marja Lubeck says all forms of misogyny are unacceptable with a need to call out bad behaviour when it is seen.
“Unfortunately, there is no simple fix to overcoming sexism but societal change is possible. People need to understand and acknowledge the harm it can do and call it out for what it is,” she says.
Video essayist focusing on far right and conspiracy theory scene in New Zealand, Byron Clark doesn’t believe this abuse is aimed at keeping women out of positions of authority, but it has that effect. He cites scientist Siouxsie Wiles, a prominent voice on Covid 19, who was vilified online.
He says white supremacy and misogyny often originate from the same place, with white men who feel that other groups have usurped them from positions of power that they feel entitled to. Misogyny is a core part of far-right ideology and in far-right spaces, feminism is often blamed for the downfall of western civilisation, alongside “gender ideology” and “cultural Marxism”.
But it has become so normalised online, he believes it’s now a bigger issue than just from extremists.
“I think there’s a wider conversation to be had about whether the tools available such as Netsafe and the Harmful Digital Communications Act (HDCA) are adequate for addressing this problem or whether more or different tools are needed,” Clark says.
Netsafe offers advice if content falls outside the HDCA. Even if it falls within the Act, it can only try to resolve things like doing take-down requests, mediation, or referring to another agency.
The District Court has stronger powers. It can order that material be taken down, issue cease and desist orders, and identify the person behind anonymous communications.
Fines of up to $50,000 for an individual or $200,000 for a body corporate can be imposed with a two year jail term for posting with intent to cause harm, increasing to three years for incitement to suicide. But this all takes time and effort that many people don’t have.
