A/HRC/38/47 censorship by other users, and do not provide victims of harassment with any form of redress.43 74. Many intermediaries have now developed policies that allow for the identification, reporting and rectification of incidents of harassment or violence against women committed on the platforms of Internet service providers. In particular, social media intermediaries have established separate mechanisms to address online abuse, including through the establishment of internal rules aimed at “blocking” online abusers or removing contents that are not considered permissible. 75. Another issue relating to the policies of intermediaries is anonymity and pseudonymity. While anonymity provides a veil for harassers and makes it harder to identify and take action against them, anonymity and pseudonymity are also crucial facets of privacy and freedom of expression for women. Women who have anonymous or pseudonymous online profiles are therefore also adversely affected by the policies on anonymity of certain intermediaries. From a gendered perspective, women should be able to use pseudonyms, which can help them to escape an abusive partner, stalkers, repeat harassers and accounts associated with the sharing of non-consensual pornography.44 As a result, women, especially women human rights defenders, who choose to remain anonymous on websites like Facebook are often reported by harassers for possessing a “fake” profile. Instead of engaging actions against the harassers, intermediaries sometimes require the women concerned to disclose their identity, which can put them at risk of serious harm. For this reason, the policy has come under severe criticism from civil society groups. Responding to these criticisms, Facebook changed its policy slightly and now requires complainants to provide some amount of proof. In this context, human rights safeguards against arbitrary censorship by intermediaries are crucial. 45 76. Overall, companies seem unwilling to report how much content is being flagged and removed and under what self-designed criteria. Although some attempts have been made, the transparency of decision-making and in the application of standards to guarantee the prompt reporting of gender-based violence on platforms is limited. 46 77. While preserving anonymity for users is essential, the identification of perpetrators is necessary if online gender-based violence is to be addressed. Access to justice requires identification processes and the ability to link digital identifiers, such as an IP address, to physical devices and perpetrators by an independent judiciary. A variety of carefully tailored legal tools could facilitate such an identification process. 4. National legal efforts to address online and information and communications technology-facilitated violence against women and girls 78. Some cases of online violence against women have drawn media attention and resulted in important debates on the need for legislative reforms, including the adoption of specific laws; for example, the posting of images of a sexual nature shared online that resulted in the tragic suicide of young girls 47 have prompted a debate on the need for legislative reforms, including the adoption of specific laws. 79. Owing to the pace at which online acts of violence against women can be committed, victims require prompt relief from effective legal protection mechanisms, remedies and redress. In reality, however, many States do not have a holistic legal framework on combating and preventing violence against women, including with regard to specific provisions on online and ICT-facilitated violence against women, and have not 43 44 45 46 47 16 See Rima Athar, “From impunity to justice: Improving corporate policies to end technology-related violence against women”, Association for Progressive Communications, 2014. See Lis Miss Hot Mess, “Facebook’s ‘real name’ policy hurts real people and creates a new digital divide”, Guardian, 3 June 2015. See IT for Change, “Technology-mediated Violence against Women in India”, January 2017. See “#ToxicTwitter: Violence and Abuse against Women Online”, Amnesty International, March 2018. For instance, in Canada the suicide of two girls prompted the Government of Canada to adopt, in 2015, Bill C-13 on the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.