Seballos 1 Alexandria Seballos Dr. Gina Gemmel English 161 19 October 2018 Research Proposal: Sexism on Social Media The research question that is driving my inquiry is why social media has a bias against women. This is an important question because sexism has been a problem that has plagued women all over the world for centuries and the emerging use of technology and social media only allows more avenues for sexism. As technology has advanced and become part of our daily lives so too has the use of social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. In this day and age social media has become a part of our culture, allowing us to connect and share our lives with others. While this may seem very positive and beneficial, my research has shown that it also creates new outlets for bias and harassment, largely against women, as degrading and sexist posts, images, and comments can now be repeatedly sent to a single person or made public to anyone that has a social media account. Although social media is a newer addition to technology, there are arguments discussing how social media both harms and helps women. Those such as Marwick, Buni and Chemaly, and Daniels and Zurbriggen argue that social media does more harm as it facilitates violence, harassment, and negative stereotypes against women. Many social media sites allow images depicting violence against women and comments threatening women to circulate around their site as well as permit pages dedicated to hating women to stay on the site. On top of that, many social media sites reinforce female stereotypes by encouraging women to present themselves in a certain light online. However, there are some, such as Chittal, who believe that social media can Seballos 2 help women. Chittal argues that social media gives women a voice and allows them to speak out against violence and injustices in a more public setting. While many argue that social media is very beneficial to women, especially in recent years with the new wave of feminism, I argue that social media is still a place that fosters sexism and encourages bias and violence against women. Recently, many women have recognized and spoken out about this problem and are pushing social media companies to do something about this issue, such as hiring more people to perform moderation on the sites or being more transparent about what can be said online. I agree with their demands and believe that social media companies should take responsibility for the harassment that occurs and create harsher guidelines that define and regulate what can and cannot be said on their websites. There are multiple counterarguments that I may encounter while conducting further research. One is the argument that social media companies should not regulate the sexist comments and posts because it would be a violation of that user’s freedom of speech. Another argument is that social media c.

1. Seballos 1
Alexandria Seballos
Dr. Gina Gemmel
English 161
19 October 2018
Research Proposal: Sexism on Social Media
The research question that is driving my inquiry is why social
media has a bias against
women. This is an important question because sexism has been
a problem that has plagued
women all over the world for centuries and the emerging use of
technology and social media
only allows more avenues for sexism. As technology has
advanced and become part of our daily
lives so too has the use of social media sites such as Twitter,
Facebook, and Reddit. In this day
and age social media has become a part of our culture, allowing
us to connect and share our lives
with others. While this may seem very positive and beneficial,
my research has shown that it also

2. creates new outlets for bias and harassment, largely against
women, as degrading and sexist
posts, images, and comments can now be repeatedly sent to a
single person or made public to
anyone that has a social media account.
Although social media is a newer addition to technology, there
are arguments discussing
how social media both harms and helps women. Those such as
Marwick, Buni and Chemaly, and
Daniels and Zurbriggen argue that social media does more harm
as it facilitates violence,
harassment, and negative stereotypes against women. Many
social media sites allow images
depicting violence against women and comments threatening
women to circulate around their
site as well as permit pages dedicated to hating women to stay
on the site. On top of that, many
social media sites reinforce female stereotypes by encouraging
women to present themselves in a
certain light online. However, there are some, such as Chittal,
who believe that social media can
Seballos 2

3. help women. Chittal argues that social media gives women a
voice and allows them to speak out
against violence and injustices in a more public setting.
While many argue that social media is very beneficial to
women, especially in recent
years with the new wave of feminism, I argue that social media
is still a place that fosters sexism
and encourages bias and violence against women. Recently,
many women have recognized and
spoken out about this problem and are pushing social media
companies to do something about
this issue, such as hiring more people to perform moderation on
the sites or being more
transparent about what can be said online. I agree with their
demands and believe that social
media companies should take responsibility for the harassment
that occurs and create harsher
guidelines that define and regulate what can and cannot be said
on their websites.
There are multiple counterarguments that I may encounter while
conducting further
research. One is the argument that social media companies
should not regulate the sexist

4. comments and posts because it would be a violation of that
user’s freedom of speech. Another
argument is that social media can’t foster violence against
women since threats made online are
not the same as threats in real life. Further, some would also say
that if the woman feels like they
are being targeted on social media then they should just stop
using it, but the answer isn’t as
simple as that. On top of this, another counter that could be
made is that social media doesn’t
foster sexism since it gives women a voice for speaking out and
pursuing feminist ideals.
Buni, Catherine and Chemaly, Soraya. “The Unsafety Net: How
Social Media Turned Against
Women.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 Jan. 2015,
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/10/the-
unsafety-net-how-social-
media-turned-against-women/381261/
The authors of this source, Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly,
have written this article
as a way to discuss how social media sites aid in creating an
unsafe online environment for

5. Seballos 3
women. They provide a multitude of examples from celebrity
nude photo leaks to the suicide of
victim Amanda Todd, to the harassment of journalist Carolina
Criado-Perez. All of the women
mentioned in these examples, and more, had been repeatedly
harassed and threatened online,
which then led to them being threatened and harassed in real
life outside of the internet. When
contacting social media sites about removing the threatening
comments and posts, companies
like Facebook, Twitter, and Google refused to take action until
the problem became publicized.
The reason many sites refuse to take down these posts is due to
free speech. Companies are
allowed to sift through posts and moderate speech on their sites,
but what constitutionally counts
as a threat or a violation of free speech is unclear, making it
difficult for companies to stop the
harassment. As a way to work towards solving this problem,
Buni and Chemaly offer up a
number of solutions consisting of the companies providing more
transparency in what comments
violate their terms of speech, dedicating more staff to

6. performing moderation, and hiring more
female programmers and managers to fight the sexism in the
technological field and aid in
creating a safer environment for women online.
Chittal, Nisha. “How Social Media is Changing the Feminist
Movement.” MSNBC, 26 March
2015, http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/how-social-media-
changing-the-feminist-movement
In her article, author Nisha Chittal discusses how social media
has aided women and
changed the feminist movement. Before, activism and protests
were restricted to those who were
in the area of the protest or who had the ability to travel there.
But now, any and everyone can
participate in their cause through social media and hashtag
activism. Through sites like Twitter
and Facebook, people can rally together, share their stories, and
raise awareness no matter where
they are by simply going online and using hashtags, such as
with the #FBrape hashtag that called
Facebook to change their policies about posts that contain
violence against women. Many people
argue that social media doesn’t help in enacting real change, but
Chittal states that it is effective

7. Seballos 4
in raising awareness and “giv[ing] a voice to those who are
otherwise voiceless.” She also points
out that the bad press that comes with hashtag activism can
pressure companies and politicians to
change their ways or take action on a problem.
Daniels, Elizabeth A. and Zurbriggen, Eileen L. “The Price of
Sexy: Viewers’ Perceptions of a
Sexualized Versus Nonsexualized Facebook Profile
Photograph.” Psychology of Popular
Media Culture, vol. 5, no. 1, 14 July 2014, pp. 2-14. ProQuest,
doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000048
The authors of this article, Elizabeth A. Daniels, and Eileen L.
Zubriggen, have
conducted a study to analyze how women that use a sexualized
profile picture are perceived by
other women and girls, compared to those that have a non-
sexualized profile picture. The study
found that the woman with the sexualized profile picture was
perceived to be less physically

8. attractive, less socially attractive, and less competent while the
woman with the non-sexualized
photo was viewed as the exact opposite. The authors believe
that this is due to both the
objectification theory, which “argues that Western societies
routinely sexually objectify the
female body,” and to societal pressures for women to be sexy
(3). They also believe that these
negative perceptions of sexualized women could lead to
negative behaviors and even sexual
violence towards women (9). To solve this problem, Daniels and
Zubriggen propose that parents,
adults, and educators teach children about the consequences of
how they portray themselves on
social media, as well as educate them on the effects of gender
stereotypes and the sexualization
of women (11).
Marwick, Alice E. “Scandal or sex crime? Gendered privacy and
the celebrity nude photo leaks.”
Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 19, no. 3, 2017, pp.
177-191. ProQuest, doi:
10.1007/s10676-017-9431-7

9. Seballos 5
The author, Alice Marwick, has written this article in order to
analyze and compare the
reactions of people on social media with the reactions of the
popular press to the 2014 celebrity
photo leak deemed “celebgate” (177). Marwick conducted her
research by analyzing the top
comments discussing the photo leak on a popular social media
website named Reddit, and by
analyzing a number of different articles and editorials. Marwick
found that on Reddit, users
celebrated the ability to see the nude photos of celebrity
women, slut shamed the women for
taking the pictures of themselves, stated that they had a right to
these images since celebrities
make a profit off of their public image anyway, and argued that
it wasn’t a violation of the
celebrities’ privacy because they shouldn’t have taken the
pictures in the first place. The only
problem online users had with the images were that some of the
celebrities were underage in the
photos and that would be considered child porn (182). Marwick
found that in the popular press,
almost all of the journals and articles deemed the leak a

10. violation of privacy and classified it
under the same problems as harassment and sexual assault (187-
188). Essentially, Marwick
discovered that those on social media saw no problem with the
leak of female celebrity nude
photos, while the popular press saw it as an invasion of privacy.
1
Al Katheeri
Saif Al Katheeri
Professor Gina Gemmel
English 161
June 16th, 2019
Online crime
With internet penetration successfully taking place even to the
remotest parts of the world, online presence has increased since
people can gain access to affordable internet-enabled gadgets in
the market. Increased online presence has created an
opportunity for as many good things as bad ones. I believe lack
of knowledge about the dangers that users engaging in an online
environment are exposed to is the most significant cause of
online crime since it creates a soft and innocent target for
attack. I want to debate that online crime is contributed to a
great extent by a lack of knowledge and awareness about the
possible dangers of an online presence. My research question is
on whether lack of knowledge on hazards that lurk online on the
part of individuals and reluctance to invest in modern IT

11. infrastructure on the part of businesses are the key contributors
of online crime. This topic has implications of the broader field
of Information technology, and I believe this is an interesting
and debatable question because of the many examples of online
crime that are happening everywhere as well as the increasing
online presence of different persons without knowledge of
precautions they should take to ensure their safety.
Online crime has been defined to include broad topics covering
any crimes or illegal activities that have been committed on the
internet or through the help of the internet. In many parts of the
world, people are purchasing laptops or any other gadgets that
can access the internet and going ahead to create social media
accounts. Others use even free public Wi-Fi to access their
banks and additional sensitive information. According to
Lawson, celebrity nude photo hacks have been facilitated by the
innocence of the victims most of whom are not aware of the
measures that they should take to secure their files. Lawson’s
view coincides with that of Martellozzo and Emma on the need
for ensuring that you understand the various ways of acquiring
your data when using online platforms. Martellozzo and Emma
further clarify several ways of becoming an informed internet
user without necessarily going into an IT class. Saridakis
describes the potential dangers that lurk in online social
networking sites citing user online behavior and severity of
attackers within the circles of the user as key determinants
safety from online crime. Victimization has become a
significant concern for those using the internet. However,
according to Aldawood and Geoffrey, educating and raising
awareness about internet safety both for businesses and
individuals is a significant way of winning the war against
cyber-crime.
My thesis is this paper is a claim of fact. At first it may seem
that online crime can be combated through putting in place
strict laws to deal with those who are convicted but upon closer
inspection it is actually the general public including individual

12. internet users and businesses that should be trained and
educated on how to keep safe and stop becoming soft targets for
hackers and other online attackers.
There are several counter-arguments that I expect in my thesis
statement. This is because online crime is a multifaceted issue,
and different people will have varied ways of looking at it.
Some will argue that the government should have the central
role of ensuring safe online environments while others will
draw the role of companies that have online platforms like
social networking sites and applications for companies that
require users to provide login details into the discussion. Online
crime cannot be tackled from one side, and a practical solution
cannot be arrived through setting up blames. Some of the most
serious online crimes which have shocked the world include;
identity theft, hacking, and piracy. However, a careful look into
the crimes that have taken place so far shows either lack of
knowledge in the part of users or failure to invest in modern
technology in the part of businesses and companies that have
been targeted so far. Some will argue that online crime has a
dynamic nature, and it is, therefore, impossible to appropriately
prepare businesses and individuals on how to avoid becoming
easy targets. I believe it is the responsibility of the companies
and individuals to understand how their online presence risks
their safety and take necessary actions.
Aldawood, Hussain, and Geoffrey Skinner. "Educating and
raising awareness on cyber
security social engineering: A literature review." 2018 IEEE
International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and
Learning for Engineering (TALE). IEEE, 2018.
This article by Aldawood and Geoffrey presents a detailed
literature review into the area of creating awareness and
educating users on cyber security social engineering. The
authors review well researched literature which documents
various cases of cyber crime which could have been evaded if
the targets were armed with information on how to avoid

13. becoming soft targets. With so many sources examined and
reviewed in this paper, I believe it will be of great help in
backing my arguments. The literature reviewed examines social
engineering as a way of exploiting human weakness in
achieving certain goals and I believe this article will be of great
help in my paper. Lawson, Caitlin E.
"Innocent victims, creepy boys: discursive framings of sexuality
in online news coverage of the celebrity nude photo
hack." Feminist Media Studies 18.5 (2018): 825-841.
In August 2014, online users were shocked with digital
dissemination of hundreds of nudes for celebrities and this led
to a major debate on the role of the celebrities and hackers in
this rare occurrence. This article presents an analysis of such
cases clearly identifying reasons why innocent celebrities were
targeted successfully. I will use this article to support my
argument on why lack of knowledge and how cyber criminals
infiltrate data is a key contributor to online crime.
Martellozzo, Elena, and Emma A. Jane, eds. Cybercrime and its
victims. Taylor &
Francis, 2017.
This book on cybercrime and its victims presents a systematic
and detailed study of how the explosion in the development of
information technology has affected the use and dissemination
of information with both benefits and risks. Cyber security is an
issue which sits at the centre of internet use and this book
explores various risks that face online users whether individuals
or businesses that have set up online platforms to facilitate their
activities. This book also explores social construction of
violence and victimisation in online spaces with detailed
involvement of scholars and experts from various disciplines
which shape the issue of cyber security. I will rely on this book
to advance various arguments and facts in my paper including
online crime targets and measures to counter cybercrime.
Saridakis, George, et al. "Individual information security, user
behaviour and cyber
victimisation: An empirical study of social networking

14. users." Technological Forecasting and Social Change 102
(2016): 320-330.
Millions of active accounts on social networking sites are
operated without any knowledge about individual information
security on the part of the user. This means that there just too
many soft targets for online attackers to fail to hit any. While
the issue of privacy has been explored in detail over the years,
little research goes on the area of information security on
individual level. This paper therefore presents a careful analysis
of relationship between online victimisation and users' activity.
This issue is centrally placed in the middle of users who have
varied perceived levels of information security. I will use this
article to advance my argument on personal information security
and how education and awareness can be of crucial help and
intervention.