Author(s): Srabanti Bera
Paper Details: Volume 2, Issue 4
Citation: IJLSSS 2(4) 14
Page No: 126 – 133
ABSTRACT
Artificial Intelligence is one of the advance and new form of technology in the 21st century which rapidly take over all kinds of tasks in its domain With the recent advancements of various AI tools everything has made easier to achieve its ends in present era. But it also increase the risk of cybercrime in which transparency, accuracy, validity, calculability and efficiency of AI became questionable before the society. The development of AI adversely effect upon the social, legal and ethical grounds of marginalized sections of the society. On humanitarian context human rights are not secured by fast growth of AI .Now a days most of the women and girls are digitally exploited through various AI assisted apps and tools which are used to create deep fake imagery. misogyny. normalisation of sexism and other types of gender based violence in online platforms.
AI powered digital robots or application are becoming a threatening issue regarding to freedom of speech and expression of most of the female journalists in their working environments or in professional field. The online gender based violence is the extreme form of digital authoritarianism in which AI try to discredit a female journalists and undermine their professional ethics. The women journalists voices are devalued and undermined their equal access of opportunity to the digital public space in the ethos of gender inequality. There always arise a contradiction relating to the matter that which should be given priority Artificial Intelligence or Maintenance of Human rights. The meaningful strategy, effective AI related legislation supported with maintenance of human rights, surveillance mechanism in online platforms along with online user’s awareness may bring about limitation in the increasing rate of online gender violence in world perspectives.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Violation of human rights, Online harassment, Lack of information integrity ,Freedom of Speech and Expression, Deep fakes, Online sexual abuse
INTRODUCTION
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human intelligence and problem-solving abilities. This concept of Artificial intelligence is not new.AI gradually achieve lot of priority in government bodies, industrial authorities and academic scholars. The technological advancements in 21st century develop the term of artificial intelligence in which manual power is replaced by machinery power. The artificial intelligence has full potentials to control various sectors of society by its problem-solving methods. Along with several advancements AI and human rights always clashes to each other and produce different challenges to protect human rights. Now-a-days the AI is criticized due to its improper security, cybercrime, data protection and privacy security, discrimination and violation of human rights etc.
The intersection of AI and gender-based violence has emerged as a big concern in this advanced technological period. The strategies of artificial intelligence already make a wide platform to exploit the women in virtual mode. In this context, online violence against women journalists turn into a huge threatening issue regarding to their personal and professional identity. According to study by UNESCO and the International Centre for Journalists published in 2020,714 female journalists were surveyed and the results showed that at least 73% of them have suffered online violence. The online violence may include online threatening, including abusive language, spreading misinformation, manipulated images, digital security attacks and so on.
TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND ONLINE GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
Technology facilitated gender-based violence, targets all women who use technology. The women who are frequently harassed in offline situations. The digital advancements here make the path of digital or online violence against them. This is the advanced technological era in which most of the people are closely attach with various digital platforms either by sharing their daily life situations or to pursuit their professional aspirations. Artificial Intelligence promotes vast opportunities to make smooth and fast communication within a few seconds with another online users without any delays or difficulties. The modern society is automatically confined within digital authority under which personal data, information may be misused or privacy may be hampered.
Regarding the matter of online violence against women, obviously the ethos of gender inequality plays an important role. The new emerging technologies facilitated gender based violence like sextortion(blackmail by threatening to publish sexual information ,photos or videos)image based abuse(sharing intimate photos without consent),doxing(publishing private information)cyber bullying, online gender and sexual harassment, cyberstalking, online grooming for sexual assault, hacking, hate speech, online impersonation and using technology to locate survivors of abuse in order to inflict further violence among many others. Obviously, it carries a significant impact on health, safety, political and economic consequences for women and girls, for their families and communities also.
DIGITAL VIOLENCE AGAINST FEMALE JOURNALISTS
This is a global solicitude about the increasing rate of digital violence against female journalists which is modern form of gender violence against the women in journalism. Journalism is the process of gathering, verifying and reporting on information that is beneficial for public utility. When female journalists can’t do their work safely, this can impact the quality of their work’’ says Dr. Silvia Chokarro, head of Protection Journalists and Human Rights Defenders at the International Human Rights Organization. Article 19 ‘’The harassment of female journalists also directly affects diversity in the journalistic field, as women journalists may decide to self-censor themselves or not write about certain controversial topics at all. This impacts the information society is going to receive and therefore the rights of citizens to be informed for which journalism is vital” The women journalists surveyed by ICFJ(International Centre For Journalists)and UNESCO said they had been subjected to a wide range of online violence, including threats of sexual assault and physical violence, abusive language, harassing private messages, threats to damage their professional or personal reputations, digital security attacks, misrepresentation via manipulated images and financial threats.
The rise off deep fakes and other AI generated misinformation create a direct threat to women’s freedom and there are maximum possibilities to turn the situation into pandemic, according to the analysis of Rangita de Silva de Alwis(elected expert on the treaty body to the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against women)and Elodie Vialle (Senior Advisor to PEN America and Journalist).The information integrity lost its reliability by the use of artificial intelligence in it .On the other hand, the journalists who always intends to show the real content of any social issues, but try to undermine their voices through online threat or harassment. According to 2020 UNESCO report,73% off women journalists faced online harassment, among those targeted 20% experienced online attacks in direct connection with their online harassment. The deep fakes were used for the first time during the last Slovak Parliamentary Election Campaign in which a fake video was made featuring on journalist Monika To’dov’a and Party Chairman Michal Simeska.
The fake video reached thousands of social media users just two days before the election though attempts wee made to redefine it. Through application of AI tools, the privacy of data and information are hacked and misuse it in different sectors, especially the cases of sexual harassment in online are one of the worse impacts of technological development in worldwide perspective. In this regard, one of the experts on the treaty body to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) recognized the digitized violence is the newest category of gender-based violence. It is also surveyed that whatever 98% deep fakes videos are made in online are pornographic and the targeted candidates are women or girls.
GLOBAL TRENDS OF ONLINE VIOLENCE OF FEMALE JOURNALISTS
The female journalists receive hateful comments on news websites and death threats on social media. According to survey results from the International Federation of journalist (IFJ), two thirds of female journalists have suffered gender-based violence in digital mode. The IFJ is the world’s largest organization of journalists representing media professional in more than 140 countries. The gender based online violence completely affect upon the personal and professional life of women journalist according to the statement of Ilham Oukhiaar, originally published: Svj International Journalism. The United Nations (UN)Secretary-General and UN women have adopted the term online violence together with the Special Rapporteur on Violence against women journalists According to Pamela Moriniere, head of the Communications and Campaigns Department and Gender Officer at the International Federation of the Journalists (IFJ), the gender-based online violence in real sense try to silence the voices of women journalists. Here the gender based online violence not only impact the woman who experience it, it also influences the other who are belong from similar professional fields. The threat of harm almost connected to the families, sources and audiences of the targeted women journalists.
These are the chilling effect on the journalism. According to Nadine Hoffman director of the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF)the trauma of online attacks weakens the journalist’s ability to feel safe and they gradually lost their interest from their work. The information uniformity remains static under this situation. No fair, free and transparent society can be developed by their own professional ethics. Not only gender violence, the journalists are attacked by racial diversity and color diversity also.
According to the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Resaa of Philippines online harassment as ‘’death by a thousand cuts” as because she had experienced a dehumanizing storm of gender online violence over a half a decade. Dr. Silvia Chokarro argues that various hate messages on Facebook slowly ruined their personal and professional life simultaneously. It should be mention that during Covid—19 period the online harassment reached its peak due to surge in online activity for pandemic. According to Women Press Freedom’s documentation the online harassment targeting women journalists from South Asia (India, Pakistan), the MENA region (Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria), Europe (North Macedonia, Belgium, France) and the Americas (Canada, Brazil).
It reveals the highest number of cases were in Pakistan (12), India (8) and the United States (7). Though the number of online harassment cases are significantly dropped in the year of 2021(to just 5.1%) but through the monitoring of Women Press Freedom new kind of violation is added as Organized Troll Campaigns which are the differ from the online harassment but is used to harass the journalists. The women journalists receive horrible experiences by the online harassment. Due to fear of publicizing the issue of sexual abuse inadequate responses from authorities and social media companies the women journalists remain in backstage rather than to come forward. Many of them gradually left the platforms like Twitter and Facebook as because they prefer to live their lives in smaller and controlled environments.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Human rights provide equal access and opportunities for everyone without any discriminations and differences. Human rights ensure liberties for everyone. This is a belief that everyone is secure and safe by its safeguarding rules and policy. But as a cutting-edge type of technology AI try to violate the ethics of human rights with its tremendous potentials upon the society. Every item of the society is calculated by its specific pros and cons. Obviously AI is followed by security problems, ethical issues, privacy infringement, gender-based discrimination and violence which are closely connect with human rights. The human rights are decorated in different international instruments including the Universal Declaration OF Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Article 12 of the Indian Constitution recognized the right to privacy as a fundamental human right. Article 21also recognized the right to life including privacy which allows everyone to live their life in dignity and safety .In the age of AI, the transmission of personal data into machines can easily widened the areas of personal frauds, hacking, financial losses and so on. So, the human being can not compromise with its adverse results in any way despite its various advantages and autonomous potentials in all ground of the society. The human rights lost its significance rampantly in modern technological era. The online gendered violence of women journalists signifies such an example of violation of human rights where AI tools are used to humiliate and harass them. Here the advancements of AI are wrongfully applied by some self interest groups of people. It is true that AI platform is open to all. According to the priorities anyone can enter into AI apps to gain more perfect and rapid results of their inquiry. But unfortunately, the hackers and few self interest groups of people misuse the functions of AI tools to harass the another one through digital mode Now-a-days the Violence and Indecent Representation of women and girls are rampantly occurred by AI assisted apps.
The deep fake imagery or the image-based abuse is one of the recent online violence of women in which their faces may be digitally blended into existing pornographic or videos. Most of the female journalists frequently experience this type of fake sexual imagery in worldwide context. Their liberties regarding to expression and opinions are hampered. Their personal and professional lives are gradually destroyed under this situation. This is a global concern and most alarming matter that AI tools are used to harass another person in online platforms. As an example, Peagasus software which can be installed on a device without the owner’s knowledge and has the capacity to extract text, images, e-mails, record calls of the operators. This can be used to spy on journalists, human right activists and political leaders. Here the citizen’s fear always exist to limit their freedom of speech and expression .Later the Indian Government has been accused of using spyware to target prominent political figures, journalists, activists and others on Nov.2021.The advancements of artificial intelligence are misused in different ways .
The recent global elections witnessed that political parties assisted with AI tools to develops and spread misleading information about their political opponents, violate democratic principles and devalued the concept of free elections .Obviously the female journalists who raise their voices and information regarding various societal aspects and happenings, they easily exploited by such kind of groups of people or another person in online platform through sexual harassment, deep fakes and so on. This incident gradually breaks down the spirit and confidence level of most of the female journalists. They are alienated from their professional ethics due to this harassment. Various research study show that the digital violence is not only limited within online, sometimes their normal life structure is also disturbed. Under these circumstances the dignity and safety of women remain in uncertain mode.
The gender discrimination or gender inequality is not the new phenomena, but AI launches various equipment in new form in digital platform in which personal data and information of any user are easily retrieved and anyone can misrepresent or manipulate them in online. Artificial intelligence obviously attacks upon the protection of human rights in which gendered violence slowly indulged in it. It becomes more serious matter to our daily lives and societal functioning. We can’t ignore the utility of technological advancement in the development of country. The benefits of artificial intelligence should be distributed without any gendered violence and violation of human rights.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
The report shows that being an advanced technology AI generate multiple opportunities to ease the functions of every sector of society. It has maximum potential to provide efficiency and calculability in different tasks by various AI tools. But along with pros, the cons also hidden in the performance of artificial intelligence. The darkness of AI emerges in individual exploitation by online gender-based violence in which AI produce false political publicity, misleading imagery, gender related harms, sexual and cyber harassment, hate speech, image and video abuse, doxing and violent threats in worldwide perspectives. The online violence against female journalists is one of the emerging and disturbing reality in present global situations. The report shows that being an advanced technology AI generate multiple opportunities to ease the complicated tasks in every sector of society. Its immediate results upon any task becomes important to gain its sustainability. Still maximum risks are including in individual exploitation by online which recently identify as Online gender-based violence. Here various AI tools are implemented to produce false political publicity, misleading imagery, gender related harms, sexual and cyber harassment, hate speech, image and video abuse, doxing and violent threats in worldwide perspectives. The online violence against female journalists gradually becomes a matter of legal consciousness as because it frequently violates human rights and human interest in entire global aspect.
AI is one of the improved technical instruments of modern society. It is appreciated for its quick decision-making powers and fast technical skills in it. But artificial intelligence sometimes lost its capacity to control and protect data and information properly. It becomes a challenge to artificial intelligence to promote equal protection of all individual including women and children. Recently, the economic rights and basic freedoms are hampered, gender discriminatory practices are increased, equal access or opportunities of women are denied in online mode in large number in different corners of the world. As artificial intelligence and gender equality are the main concern of world perspective then the state should operate with definite constitutional and international human right principles in which adequate protections are given to every individual. This is the responsibility to each and every Tech companies must comply with International human rights standards. Under Global Gender Equality Strategy Approach, it is argued to combine a legislation which aimed specifically at AI created abuses.AI literacy and AI education should be promoted to increase public awareness in different ground of the society.
The online platforms need to be strong and it should build AI resilience to observe the tendency of gender-based violence and implementing safety rules to prove it transparency. The crisis mechanisms at large scale is very much important to protect the interests of women journalists and human rights defenders those are the victims of online sexual exploitation. The civil society organization should assist them in a particular and structured channels to protect their rights which must be more reliable, efficient and workable for them. In real sense, the digital awareness should develop among women whenever they are active in online. Digital Dada Podcast raises awareness in digital literacy and gender-based violence in Kenya and across East Africa. Such kind of attempts should be implemented in other countries of the world. The journalists should be train with open-source intelligent methods and other important measures to detect deep fakes creation. It is one of the challenging aspects of the legal departments to make such an effective balance between using AI and protecting the human element of justice.
The state should expressly prohibit the application of that tools which doesn’t ensure the fundamental rights of citizen. From critical point of view artificial intelligence devalued the meaning of ethical consideration of individual. The socio-economic development of nation is always expressed through the advancement of technology, protection of human rights and equality of gender. So, at the end of the day, this is the collective responsibility of every individual to change the attitudes in matter of gender discrimination in various sphere of the society, implementation of transparent and more genuine technological paradigm in which human rights are properly secured. Lastly, the policymakers need to give more attention upon the development of domestic and international norms in relating to the online sexual harassment of journalists in India.