The role of social media in promoting hate speech against women in the Middle East

Although women have benefited from outstanding possibilities of the internet, they are also a threat of online hate speech. Because of this, and because international laws support gender equality, the main goal of this study is to see if and how social media can accommodate and spread hate speech against women in the Middle East by analyzing and tracking 5 specific words (evde kalmış, evlenmemiş, yeriniz mutfakta, sen bir kızsın, and aklı noksandır) on Twitter in Arabic for users in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. In order to answer the study question of what role does Twitter play in facilitating hate speech against women? the method of qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis was used. There will also be an online survey in the targeted areas to learn about women's experiences with this issue. The Analysis findings that in the three countries investigated, there is a significant amount of hate speech directed towards women. Twitter allows users to communicate in a variety of ways. Data research revealed that people use a variety of tweeting methods to communicate. Indeed, users took advantage of the opportunity and posted photos (visuals) relevant to the key words used in this study as an additional and/or alternative means of spreading hate speech, allowing users to broadly share hate speech on this social media platform. By examining the tweets about the word "Spinster", it was revealed that this word was used to silence women who shared their views on social media. The tweets openly declared that the woman they describe as "Unmarried" is an unwanted and expired person like the land of "Bayra" and does not get any benefit from it. The analysis showed a significant use of negative terms, with the word "Your Place in the Kitchen" from the tweeters being used as all that women can be done is to work in the kitchen, which means that women are only fit for housework and cannot express their opinions or claim their rights. After analyzing the tweets (You Are A Girl), it was determined that this word is used to despise women and they should not participate in some social actions or activities because of their gender. The analysis showed that the sentence "She Has A Deficient Mind" is used to express an adjective that slanders and humiliates women, it has been pointed out that this word is used in the context of belittling, mocking, mocking women. Besides using this word to accuse women of not being able to manage life rationally and being purely emotional in judging matters, they are characterized by stupidity or low IQ relative to men. Based on the survey results, 66.4 % of respondents confirmed that they have been targeted by online hate speech, most likely because of their gender. Another result is that 89.2 % of people have come across online hate speech. Hate speeches against women were coming by about 31.3 % of males and 41.4 % by both genders. The most exposed age group to hate speech was 18 to 25 years old. Furthermore, the survey separated respondents' replies to hate speech posts, finding that 44.4 % reported the post to social media sites, while 65.6 percent received no response from the platforms. The study has revealed three major categories of recommendations: one for INGOs, another for social media platforms, and a third for hate speech victims. Hate speech should be defined clearly by international human rights groups and social media platforms, and it should be prohibited. They also have explicit rules forbidding hate speech. Social media platforms should be more active and effective in removing such messages by recruiting well-trained staff to identify hate speech posts and respond to user complaints about any sort of hate speech in a professional manner. In addition, artificial intelligence should be used to choose keywords that were claimed to be the most frequently used in hate speeches. In addition, victims and witnesses of hate speech-related offenses should be encouraged to report them. It is critical that women continue to speak out about the abuse they are subjected to and expose Internet misogynists whenever they have the opportunity.