Individuals engaging in cyberbullying often excuse their behaviour as ‘inevitable’ within online spaces while deflecting blame onto victims.
This is according to a new report titled Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence on Social Media by the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC), which analysed common understandings of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (tfGBV) on X (formerly Twitter) between 1 February 2024 and 28 February 2025. We Will Speak Out (WWSOSA) attended the launch of the report.
The report adopts the definition of tfGBV as any act that is assisted by digital tools that likely results in physical, sexual, psychological and social harm, among others.
The conversation was categorised into five focus areas, including revenge porn, cyberbullying, trolling, doxxing and defamation.
Cyberbullying is encouraged by the anonymity offered by social media. Its effects range from emotional and psychological issues and may extend to suicide.
CABC’s researchers found that instead of condemning cyberbullying, there was more emphasis on individuals who posted images and videos to tolerate or accept the bullying as it came with the territory of being on social media.
Some users stated that individuals could prevent being bullied by deleting social media apps or blocking content and accounts that shared offensive content.
Sentiments such as these do not hold perpetrators of bullying accountable. Instead, they blame the victims for inviting bullying by posting online.
Blaming individuals for being bullied was also detected under the category of trolling, where offensive statements directed to some individuals were disguised as humour.
This took place in the form of body-shaming, where individuals made unsavoury remarks about the appearance of others sharing their images online.
Cyberbullying was not the only behaviour that was trivialised. Researchers found that some accounts downplayed the non-consensual distribution of intimate images and videos, referred to as revenge porn.
Revenge porn is dismissed as harmless, ignoring the possibility that those depicted may not have given their consent for their private content to be distributed publicly.
Others justified the sharing of intimate images and videos by arguing that privacy is lost the moment a picture is taken or a video is recorded.
The legal implication of publicly sharing intimate videos and videos of individuals without their consent is also misunderstood. Some users expressed that the law only punishes the individual that first distributes the image/video and not those individuals that reshare the content.
This is incorrect, as the law can also apply to those reposting, resharing or forwarding the image or video.
By working collectively, faith-based initiatives can contribute to education and awareness-raising efforts that confront these misconceptions and activate communities to create a safer online environment, thereby effectively combating the trivialisation of cyberbullying and tfGBV