READ FULL SOCIAL MEDIA AND GENDER REPORT HERE
Our recently released report on Gender Aspects and Social Media could be analysed in its stadardisational aspect among others.
It cites the Recommendation CM/Rec (2007)17 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on gender equality standards and mechanisms further states that gender equality is not a women’s issue only but it permeates the whole social texture and can be viewed as a “public good, providing social, political and economic benefits to the individuals in society and to society as a whole”.
The report stresses that social media should abide by human rights principles and values, including gender balance and gender equality. On a global scale, the UN Guiding principles on business and human rights declare that “the responsibility to respect human rights is a global of standard expected conduct for all business enterprises wherever they operate.” Though not legally binding, the guidelines oblige businesses to seek “to prevent or mitigate any adverse impacts related to their operations, products or services, even if these impacts have been carried out by suppliers or business partners.” In this way, the private sector as an influential stakeholder should show that it also joins in the most fundamental global project – the consistent protection of human rights in the convergent world.
In terms of social media gender policies, the report finds out that gender and social media is an area of scant or almost no coherent study. Problems can be complex – gender issues combined with hate and libellous speech or false information. The theme can be complicated by the fact that social media represent a multiplicity of platforms and services. Ideally, any of them should adopt and apply a gender balance strategy.
The report discusses gender balance, measuring and gender indicators as tools for future action.
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) claims that “gender indicators have the function of pointing out gender‐related changes in society over time, and therefore to measure whether or to what extent gender equality is being achieved. The compilation of gender equality indicators relies on international monitoring initiatives and takes into account the existing demand for statistical information in this field at national and international levels.” Not only coherent indicators should be devised but also standards of various activities should be amended applying a mainstreaming approach. All these efforts should create a solid ground for efficient diversity policies. In May 2019 UNECE and over 50 standardization bodies signed Declaration on Gender Responsive Standards. The objective is “to support more gender-balanced and inclusive standards development processes, and to strengthen the gender-responsiveness of standards themselves, including by conducting gender-based analysis for the development or revision of all standards.”
The report calls for the unification of standards based on human rights. At this stage, each social media platform strives to follow its own diversity policy based on certain principles. These principles are not announced or explicitly pointed out. In some cases, policies yield positive results, but the picture is fragmented and uneven and requires much more efforts to establish good and consistent models. What remains unclear is the connection between diversity policies and international principles because social media do not operate in a vacuum. Human rights can create the common basis to set up strategies based on shared values that nourish also freedom of speech. In addition, human rights standards can help assess the efficiency of these policies. Though every year networks publish a diversity of workforce and related issues report, the methodology on the basis of which the evaluation has been done remains dubious. It is also unclear whether and to what extent these internal policies impact content on social media, more precisely whether aggressive gender remarks and offending opinions persist despite them.
The Report recommends Key indicators for assessing gender balance in social media. Mechanisms for the regulation of gender issues should rely on the policy of mainstreaming. If we remember the OECD recommendations, such a mechanism presupposes the adoption of gender balance frameworks, the provision of an appropriate institutional structure for implementation and the establishment of good practices. A glueing element is a system for evaluation that permeates the three building blocks of the mainstreaming mechanism (frameworks, structures and practices) since it adjusts and improves the process. Evaluation should be ongoing. The assessment done by deploying an array of indicators can be considered a part of self-regulation which is typical for the media sector and considered most effective for any media. Self-regulation strengthens media independence allowing the media to establish and comply with its own rules thus developing its own standards of behaviour. The outcomes are definitely positive for the media – gaining a higher reputation and trust among the public.
READ FULL SOCIAL MEDIA AND GENDER REPORT HERE
The material provided by M21F