KEZIA Dugdale has received three death threats online including one which said she should be “bayoneted”.
The former Scottish Labour leader revealed the threats, which she reported to the police, as international human rights group Amnesty International publishes a report on violent and threatening abuse being made against women on Twitter. It said the platform had become toxic for many women and accused it of failing to respects women’s rights.
In an interview conducted by the organisation’s researchers Dudgdale said she tuned into Twitter to keep up with politics news and commentary and often found herself scrolling through abuse - much of it sexist.
WATCH: Scottish political leaders speak out about the abuse they receive online
“There was one particular instance a few years ago now where somebody on Twitter suggested I should be bayoneted. That was the occasion that I went to the police. I believed that that could be perceived as a violent threat and I felt that it deserved some attention,” she said.
“Probably 10 or 20 times a day I am scrolling through absolute mountains of abuse. There’s different levels of abuse and harassment within that spectrum, some of it very serious indeed. Three times in the six years I’ve been an elected politician I’ve felt it serious enough to report to the police. That’s involved three death threats in six years.” She added: “It’s definitely the case that I get more directly sexist commentary on Twitter and online from men although it’s not always exclusively men. “
The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also feature in the study, and all three politicians are backing Amnesty’s campaign demanding Twitter act to combat abuse.
Davidson spoke of feeling ‘“hunted” after receiving abusive and homophobic comments. She said: “The sheer volume of abuse can make you sometimes feel hunted online. Because I’m openly gay there was a lot of homophobic abuse. I have a lot of young gay followers on my Twitter, and for me it’s important to call that out.”
The First Minister said:”There’s a link between the misogyny and abuse that women experience offline and online. Social media is just a different way of committing these acts. Ultimately it’s the misogyny lying behind it that is the problem. So, it’s that we have to tackle, not just the means by which people are able to spread their hate and misogyny and abuse.”
WATCH: Scottish political leaders speak out about the abuse they receive online
Testimony given to Amnesty by women also included rape threats and racism, as well as transphobic and homophobic abuse. Public figures, MSPs, MPs and journalists were often targets, but people who weren’t in the public eye also experienced abuse, especially if they speak out about issues like sexism.
Kate Nevens, Amnesty International’s Scotland Programme Director, said: “Twitter has evolved into a place where women receive threats of rape, extreme violence, and even death as well as abuse related to their gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation.
“Our video interviews with Scottish political leaders and activists illustrate just how toxic some of the abuse they receive is – abuse which largely goes unchecked.” Twitter said it disagreed with the findings, adding that it “cannot delete hatred and prejudice from society”. It said it had made more than 30 safety changes to its platform in the past 16 months.
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