Indian female politicians face online abuse: Amnesty

Almost 100 Indian female politicians faced abuse, including rape and death threats, on social media during elections last year.

According to a study conducted by Amnesty International India, 95 female politicians received nearly 1 million hateful mentions on Twitter between March and May last year.

Experts said that online gender-based violence was on the rise, intimidating women and dissuading them from standing up for public office.

BJP’s member, Shazia Ilmi said, “People should know what women in politics endure what they have to put up with and how unequal it becomes for them.”

An Amnesty spokesperson said that it was unclear if online abuse against female politicians was decreasing or increasing as the research was the first of its kind.

However, Head of World Wide Web Foundation, Adrian Lovett said that gender-based online violence was on the rise globally in developed and developing countries.