By akademiotoelektronik, 11/03/2023

"You don't look like anything", "You should kill yourself": Nathalie denounces the harassment of which she is the victim on social networks

Nathalie is a young woman full of life, despite the illness that overwhelms her. She found some solace in the creativity and communion enabled by social media. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, she began to receive humiliating messages, sometimes going as far as threats. Like Nathalie, many people are victims of cyberbullying, but few dare to file a complaint.

It was Nathalie's companion (assumed first name because she wishes to remain anonymous) who decided to warn us. Via the orange button Alert us, he denounces "a frightening experience" lived on social networks. Angry and helpless, Stéphane says that the young woman receives insults and even death threats.

The Walloon, who suffers from a severe hand disability, is battling esophageal cancer. Operated a few months ago, she moves around in a wheelchair. Until recently, she saw her time spent on the TikTok social network as "a nice time outside the hospitals". But his companion pins "people who have fun putting down the most vulnerable". Some have even gone so far as to look for her on other networks "to destroy her", adds Stéphane who confides: "I saw my companion go from laughter to tears... I'm not too afraid for her because I know that she will get up but let's protect our youngest, before it turns into a nightmare", he urges.

Nathalie created her TikTok account a year ago, and she has been receiving abusive messages for a month, "when I started to have a little popularity on the network". First, messages that could almost make you smile, like the one that points to a resemblance to "E.T", the fictional character, "because of his hands". Then the words became more violent, until they became frankly threatening... There is no shortage of cruel examples: they are "you don't look like anything", "you should kill yourself", "we have to get rid of people like you, you have nothing to do on earth“coldly written in comment under his publications or sent in private message on other social networks.

When we speak to Nathalie for the first time, she has just received what are similar to death threats, she is visibly very upset. She explains that when she read the first hateful messages, she did not react too much: "At the moment, we are bad, we wonder if we have not 'looked for it' and we say to ourselves that it is not is not serious". Then she started to answer, to try to explain her condition but she says "I realized very quickly that the more content you give them, the more aggressive and virulent they become". Some of the people behind these messages have found her on other networks and therefore continue to attack her on these platforms. The young woman believes that it is easy to choose "your victims" on the networks: "Different people" and bad about themselves.

She describes an episode that marked her, a private message received at 3 a.m. clearly saying: "If I see you on my way, I will finish you off with my fist". There, she shares: "We don't feel good, we will check this person's account and we quickly realize that she is Belgian and that's where the fear comes slowly". She quickly erases and closes her phone. But that is not enough to forget. Other messages arrive attacking his physique again and again: “The morale goes down, comes the urge to cry and there, it is too late. When you start to doubt your own person… “. Until asking unimaginable things to his loved ones like this question posed to his little sister a few weeks ago: "Do you think I should die? After all, I am a horror."

Nathalie wanted to stop everything: "I admit that it's very hard, we feel humiliated... Where do you get the strength?". This strength she finds in part thanks to her loved ones and the kind people who follow her. "They made a lot of reports." She claims that following these reports, TikTok banned certain accounts. But, regrets Nathalie, these people can find a way to create other identifiers.

For the moment, the young woman says she needs a break, she tries not to go too much on the networks. But, she thinks that in the future she will report all inappropriate comments herself. Above all, she would like her testimony to be of some use: "If I have any advice to give, it is to remain vigilant because in harassment, your worst enemy is not the one who will harass you but silence, keeping everything to yourself and telling yourself that you will manage on your own". No, she insists: "Don't be alone, I don't know where I found the courage to show my partner my phone, but that's when he realized of what I was going through".

This strong and courageous testimony shows how difficult it is to fight against the consequences of cyberbullying, even if the networks try to put safeguards in place.

How does TikTok try to protect its users?

The Community Guidelines lay out what is allowed and what is not on this mobile application, the most downloaded in the world in 2020. Videos or messages that do not comply with this framework are subject to moderation. This is the case, for example, with any expression of an abusive nature, such as threats or derogatory remarks intended to mock, humiliate, embarrass, intimidate or hurt a person. The content is therefore "checked" to ensure that it complies with the rules.

Two types of moderation

Mechanical moderation is done by computer. Via algorithms, the content is filtered, to identify certain specific words or insults, for example. Videos or comments can thus be deleted, the accounts of the people at the origin of the content violating the rules can also be deleted or suspended. This verification is done continuously, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

Human moderation is handled by workers in the users' language. It is important because it identifies certain content that may not be identified.

Abusive content can also be reported, because obviously videos and messages can fall through the cracks. These contents are then quickly checked, and here too they can be deleted.

TikTok has implemented additional protective tags. The holder of an account can for example decide to prohibit all comments under his publications. He can also decide to delete some of them or to block users. It is not possible to send photos via direct messaging. And it is definitely not accessible for those under 16, a decision taken a little over a year ago. Still concerning the youngest, the family connection mode allows you to associate the account of a parent with that of his child, which activates control options.

It is difficult to assess the proportion of abusive content that "passes" despite all these tags. On the other hand, there are figures on moderate content.

62 million videos deleted in one quarter

During the first quarter of 2021, nearly 62 million videos were taken down for violating Community Guidelines, representing less than 1% of videos uploaded to TikTok. Of these deleted videos, 8% were for harassment and 2% for hateful behavior.

Content removed for harassment and humiliation is up: 8%, compared to 6.6% in the second half of 2020. According to TikTok, this increase is partly explained by the updates made to the rules at the end of the year last, with the aim of combating bullying.

Still regarding harassment, more than 66% of the videos were taken down proactively, that is, before they were reported. And nearly 84% were deleted within 24 hours of their publication on the platform.

More than 11 million accounts deleted

Nearly 11,150,000 accounts were removed for violating community rules or terms of service in the first quarter of this year. Among this figure, more than 7 million TikTok accounts have been taken down because they were suspected of being held by users under the age of 13. According to the Child Focus foundation, one in 10 young people would face cyberbullying.

These figures show that moderation is necessary and effective, but in many cases it is not enough, at least from the user's point of view. Offensive messages, videos can permanently shake people, even before they have been deleted or reported. This is why many victims of online harassment sometimes prefer to delete their social media accounts.

Nathalie thought about it several times. She sums up her state of mind as follows: "I am very sick, I do everything to live and still be happy, I would like so much to be pretty and have legs to be able to run like crazy, I would like to have beautiful hands. to put beautiful jewels in it… But no, I can't because life makes me drool every day. So if in addition we come to press on my psychological wounds, what is the point of my fight today? I dream of living a long time, while others try to destroy everything behind a screen".

Few complaints filed with the police

People who are victims of harassment also find it difficult to file a complaint. Commissioner Olivier Bogaert of the Federal Police's online crime unit observes: "Many people do not go to the police, sometimes because they are worried or because they are under pressure". It is therefore very difficult to quantify the phenomenon or to determine whether it is increasing. In 2020, there were 2,359 complaints of cyberbullying registered in Belgium.

Nathalie says she finally took the plunge a few days ago: "I filed a complaint with the police for harassment against X with the various messages. It's not easy, but when your life, we must not wait any longer".