Challenging misleading information in the House of Lords about domestic abuse
It is not new or surprising that falsehoods and lies are spread in the political landscape, especially when it comes to ‘gendered’ issues. During the reading stages of the Online Safety Bill it was claimed repeatedly in the House of Lords that "women are 27 times more likely than men to be harassed online". Baroness Newlove said in this debate: ”I thank Barnardo’s, the NSPCC, Refuge and the Centre for Women’s Justice for their briefing. My interest will be in the work and roles of the Victims’ Commissioner and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, and the code of practice to protect the VAWG sector in light of women being 27 times more likely to be abused and harassed.” Baroness Grey-Thompson added: “I would like to concentrate on violence against women and girls, and I thank all the women who have been in touch with me. We must recognise the threat that women are under. Women are 27 times more likely to experience abuse—that is one in three women.”
How is it possible that intelligent, highly educated members of the House of Lords spread such misinformation while creating a bill that is meant to address ‘misinformation’?
It is possible, because a feminist online campaign, specifically created to lobby for a gendered version of the Online Safety Bill, presented the Lords with inaccurate information. On their website, they promote the claim that ‘women are 27 times more likely than men to be harassed online’. As reference, they point to ‘European Women’s Lobby (2017) Her Net Her Rights – Mapping the state of online violence against women and girls in Europe’. The ‘27’ claim can indeed be found in the document, but with no reference to research.
We (GenderParityUK) knew this number to be false, since we had looked into research on online abuse before and had discovered that men experience slightly higher levels of online abuse.
We wrote a detailed letter to all Lords and Baronesses who participated in the Online Safety Bill Debate, in which we made them aware of the falsehood of the ‘27’ claim and provided them with actual research. The email was sent to over 40 members of the House of Lords. The precise number of responses was: Zero. We resent the email after 2 weeks and received the same result. Frustrated due to the lack of accountability we decided to contact the Office for Statistics Regulation. This government body has ‘helped’ the Men’s Rights Movement before on at least two occasions, because they actually seem to care about research without ideological bias.
“[…] this statistic has been used several times in the House of Commons and House of Lords in discussions about the Online Safety Bill. […] The original source of the statistic is a 2015 UN Broadband Commission report [which] was withdrawn by the UN Broadband Commission shortly after publication, due to concerns about the quality of the analysis in the report.”
In our letter we made them aware of the use of unsupported statistics and provided them with research disproving the false claim.
The Office for Statistics Regulator published their response on their website.
"Thank you for contacting us with your concerns about the claim that “women are 27 times more likely than men to be harassed online”. As you pointed out, this statistic has been used several times in the House of Commons and House of Lords in discussions about the Online Safety Bill.
The claim is based on an external research report rather than official statistics. [...]
The original source of the statistic is a 2015 UN Broadband Commission report, Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls: A Worldwide Wake-Up Call. However, the source most commonly cited is a 2017 report and resource pack, Her Net Her Rights, produced by the European Women’s Lobby, which references the UN report.
We were not able to properly scrutinise the statistic because it is our understanding that the UN report was withdrawn by the UN Broadband Commission shortly after publication, due to concerns about the quality of the analysis in the report. The UN Broadband Commission replaced the report with a short executive summary with the key findings of the research, but this does not contain the ‘27 times’ claim.”
‘Armed’ with this public statement of the Office for Statistics Regulatior we have now contacted the sponsors of the bill, MP Michelle Donelan and Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay. We are yet to receive a response to our complaint and would encourage you, the reader, to contact them as well and all those who continue to spread this misinformation.
It would be naive to call the public response of the Regulator a victory, but is a small step in the right direction.
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Philipp Tanzer
Philipp Tanzer (45) was born in Germany and moved to Scotland in 2012. He has been an active member of the Men's Rights Movement since 2018. The BBC followed him in their short documentary "I am a Men's Right's Activist" and he has been a guest on podcast such as the Lotus Eaters. He founded the organisation GenderParityUK in 2020. He is married and has a daughter named Hope.