Is the internet becoming a risky place for women?
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Loading... - Charles Uwera
- 06 Apr 2023
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When popular gender activist Juliette Karitanya wrote a tweet suggesting that Rwandan men need to wear deodorant more often, she did not anticipate the backlash that would follow.
This single tweet, written back in October 2019, would go on to completely change how she interacts online. At first, Karitanyi, also a feminist, says that the comments were general but soon after that, they escalated into personal attacks on her looks, her family, and her sex life among others.
“It wasn’t supposed to be serious. I thought that maybe we would agree to disagree but soon enough, I realised that this tweet had been taken personally by many people. The comments were cruel. They wanted me to back off, but I was determined not to be pushed around by social media bullies,” she says. Karitanyi says that while she responded to most of the comments, she was stopped in her tracks when one of those commenting shared with her a video of a gruesome murder scene onto which he attached a clear warning that she would be next.
“This was not the first time I was being attacked by men online. But this time, I was terrified. I realised that this could very easily escalate from online to physical violence. On my way home that day and many days after that, I constantly looked over my shoulder, scared that maybe someone was about to attack me,” she says. Since then, Karitanyi deals with episodes of anxiety when she is approached by strangers who recognise her from social media.
“I am cautious because I don’t know if someone saying hello is the same person who was bullying me or sending me death threats. As a result, I have also minimised my social media engagements to only people with real and not pseudo accounts to preserve my mental health,” she says. Read More…
