Amongst all the hate speech and bullying thousands suffer on social media already, a new form of harassment has arrived. Across platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram live accounts who film women outside of nightclubs without their consent, then post it online for hundreds of people to tear them apart.
These accounts mask themselves with usernames like “nightlife” or “walking tours”, but the camera angles tell a different story. The videos focus entirely on women walking out of clubs or walking down the street, filming at a low angle or from behind, and at times revealing intimate body parts. However, this harrowing material isn’t even the worst part of these posts.
Harmful Comment Sections:
As if these victims being preyed on haven’t suffered enough, they are then subjected to the keyboard warriors who take it upon themselves to body shame, sexualise, and spew hatred in the comment section .“The tattooed lady is doable”, “easy meat””, “thick eyes thick thighs” and” big fat cow’s” are just few of the awful hate comments that are left by men under these videos.
The sickness behind the “Content Creators”:
Filming women without their consent is seriously dangerous in itself; however, it also encourages misogyny and damaging insults. After all, these so-called “content creators” know what they’re doing by videoing drunk girls anonymously and posting it for everyone to see. Sharing such content gives people the opportunity to bully, and to no one’s surprise, these perverted pages never put a stop to the damaging insults that are a direct result of these videos.
Through the lens of the victims:
Fourth-year Stirling University student Lily is one of the hundreds of people who have been filmed on a night out. However, her situation differs from the typical walking down the street angles, as a nightclub took it upon themselves to film her from over her shoulder, zooming into her private messages. Lily, in her first year at the time, was intoxicated and had lost her friend in the club, messaging him desperately trying to find him. Seeing this, the nightclub decided to post the video, using captions to make it look like she was searching for her “boyfriend”.
As if starting university isn’t hard enough, this was another weight on her shoulders she had to face; “it was my first-year flatmate who I had known for two months at that point, I was then also getting accused of being his partner, which was not the case too. It was all just so strange.” While the post itself may have seemed like a harmless joke to the creator, insinuations like this can snowball quickly in the university social setting.
Creepy intentions:
Lily also explained that the sneaky nature of the act that made her feel the most uncomfortable; “it was the fact that I was targeted as an individual that I didn’t like, without my knowledge. If I had known I was being filmed, I would have said no, or maybe I would have said yeah because I was drunk, but I would have had that choice. And I think it was the fact that the choice was taken away from me in that moment is what makes it creepy.”
The aftermath:
Not only do these strange photographers make people feel extremely uncomfortable, but they leave a lasting effect. Normally, as many do, Lily and her friends would get photos taken with club photographers if offered. However, now Lily says “I wouldn’t do that at all anymore if me and my friends see someone filming at all.”
Women have been subjected to harassment and attacks for centuries in public for centuries, but it’s the publicity aspect of these pages that could give the victims in these videos heightened paranoia about going out. Even women coming across these videos will have worries about the possibilities of this happening to them, leading to anxiety around going out, especially at nighttime.
The shocker is the fact that these pages have received hundreds of likes, user interaction, and followers. So why is no one speaking about it more?
The unaware and the haters:
The sad truth is that many users of social media aren’t even aware that these pages exist, yet many who do know about them, comment under these posts solely to defend the people behind the camera. Defenders typically leave comments stating that “it’s a public place” and that there’s “nothing wrong with it”. Meanwhile, very few comments call the page out and criticise the inappropriate videos.
Justice:
While there has been 1 arrest made of a man behind the camera of some of this content, many others are still making these videos and getting plenty of audience interaction. In fact, even reporting the accounts or hateful comments do not come to any resolutions. Yet, the continuation of the accounts leads to the questioning of how far these “content creators” have to go for the police and those with power to take action?
While women are still struggling to get these videos taken down, and getting true justice seems nearly impossible, the government’s current focus on online safety and misogyny may hopefully lead to new legislation that gives women and the police the power to allow platforms to take action. But on the other hand, this legislation is not guaranteed to come into effect, and even if it does, there is no guarantee that it will even be effective. So while the content is still being spread all over social media, the best thing viewers can do is report it and move on, as despite the tempting thought to voice any disdain in the comments, that would just give the creators the one thing they want above everything else: engagement, because without engagement, they are nothing.
Featured Image Credit – Manchester night life via Facebook
