Chapter 9: Online Gender-Based Violence and the Regulation of Social Platforms

Building upon the literature review, this chapter addresses the challenges and dilemmas related to the regulation and responsibility of social platforms. It focuses on the governance of the content that impacts women's participation and intervention in the online space. The text outlines the regulatory strategies of the US, Germany and France, as well as the efforts of the European Union to establish a code of conduct for social media. It also aims to analyse the dilemmas underlying the self-regulation strategies pursued by social platforms, which involve human labour moderation, flagging or reporting by users and automated models of content moderation. The chapter also delves into alternative governance solutions aimed at supporting and empowering women's participation in online spaces and addressing and countering misogynistic content. It concludes by discussing how media and digital literacy education may provide tools and strategies to tackle and prevent online gender-based violence.