Online Harassment: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

the Internet it's a place where you can see incredible things like glamour shots of cats angora show bunnies or even this rare heartbreaking footage of an injured world war one soldier returning home to his pregnant wife new idiots I got you so good I got you so good the internet has been blowing our minds with its power and convenience for decades as you can see in this actual AOL ads from the 90s hey Dan ready for the game I'm just finishing up here with my new kayaking friends kayaking friends on your computer yeah I just got America online sounds great listen I can't go to the game today what I've got to send something for my mom's birthday it's tomorrow I'll then book plane tickets for our trip next week and my kids got to go to the library to look up dinosaurs hey we can take care of all that before we go Yeah right Oh with America Online wait let me get this right your mom's birthday is tomorrow your trip is next week and you're only planning both of those things now forget the AOL tutorial let's talk about basic responsibilities here dad you're a father but what is the act as the ad goes on to point out the internet was going to fix everything call now for ten free hours of America online and get instant access to the worlds of sports finance computing and entertainment here come the dinosaurs I saved you a trip the library that's great yeah that Laurie is easy too you know I can even send email on the internet of course it's my personal favorite live chat that's how I met my new kayaking buddies okay okay okay I'm now pretty sure that kayaking buddies is a euphemism I'm not saying that he's not going to meet his new buddies in a shed by a lake I'm just saying there's not going to be a kayak in though amazingly that ad was 20 years ago and the Internet has become integral to modern life but unfortunately it's also become a haven for harassment and I'm not talking about everyday internet abuse of which I am more than aware look at our YouTube page and you'll see comments like this guys are dumbass I don't know why but I always pictured John Oliver as a puffin and watch his hands his fingers are like creepy spider lives which is ridiculous because I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the kind of direct threats that can make people fear for their safety and if you're thinking well come on that doesn't seem like that big a problem well congratulations on your white penis because if you have one of those you probably have a very different experience of the Internet women in particular can receive a veritable cornucopia of horrifying messages online just listen to one female video game we're discussing one of them all colorful threats that she's seen I think the one that always sticks out in my mind is uh I'm going to stick an egg in your vaginal canal and punch it it's poignant it is kind of poignant fun fact for you I'm going to stick an egg in your vaginal canal and punch it was actually the original title of Eat Pray Love so and that threat was comparatively mild others can be chillingly specific and potentially dangerous listen to how these women were treated when they spoke out against what they saw as sexism in the video game industry I'm constantly aware of the fact that there's an enormous amount of hate directed towards me hate in the form of bomb threats rape threats even death threats they told me they were coming to kill me when someone posts or address online and they tell you that the murder your whole family you don't really feel safe staying with that location yeah no I wouldn't blame her for not feeling safe staying on earth for the record if someone did that to me I'd hit you right to the International Space Station straight away except Who am I kidding they'd never let me in I've got spiders for hands the internet is mean look this this does not just affect women in gaming it can potentially affect any woman who makes the mistake of having a thought in her mind and then vocalizing it online for many female writers and public figures this day-to-day harassment is their life earlier this year writer Amanda Hess detailed her experience the threats were obviously distressing it was an anonymous person on Twitter threatening to come to my house to rape me to cut off my head and in case you think she's exaggerating here are some of the tweets she's referring to happy to say we live in the same state I'm looking you up and when I find you I'm going to rape you and remove your head and I am 36 years old I did 12 years for manslaughter I killed a woman like you who decided to make fun of guys which is horrifying for so many reasons first he put manslaughter in quotes like he still doesn't think it's a crime and also he put his age like he's writing the world's worst OkCupid profile I'm 36 years old I've killed before I've got a pretty weird shaped penis the thing is when Amanda Hess went to the police she quickly discovered how ill-equipped they can be to deal with this sort of thing in my home state of California it's a crime to threaten bodily harm against another person when I received my most sort of recent bout of threats said the police officer who came to my door didn't even understand what Twitter was had no idea how to investigate such a crime and I'm not even sure knew that it it was criminal so it's hard to know what to do when you're put in that situation that's a problem because the police cannot investigate the crime if they genuinely don't understand the medium in which it happened if someone tried to drown you you don't want the police saying I get the murder attempts but what's this water thing you keep bringing up is it like air but a bit more Chokey is that what it is and we're not just threatened and harassed online the Internet has thrown up a whole new way to wreck their lives it's called revenge porn you may have heard of it it's when naked photos of people are posted online without their consent and it can be devastating this is anne-marie Chiarini an English professor who let her then-boyfriend take some private photos of her now after they broke up he sent them to her employer and her son's kindergarten teacher and then this happened I received an anonymous email at work that a profile had been created of me someone was pretending to be me and they were nude pictures on this profile so it googled my name and the porn web site xhampster came up and there was my first and last name the name of the college where I teach the town where I live and a solicitation for sex now that obviously sounds like a nightmare and sadly the horror of that situation led her to some pretty dark places my actual thoughts were this was mine this is my life this is never gonna end so I need to end my life because I could not live like that so after the I found the profile I attempted suicide now you would assume that it's illegal to do that to someone the problem is there is no federal law specifically against revenge porn and in Maryland where she lived revenge porn was not illegal at the time in fact only 23 states have passed laws specifically against revenge porn in the other twenty-seven it's one of those things that should be explicitly illegal but isn't like using a golf umbrella in Manhattan or returning from a semester abroad in Spain and insisting on calling it Barcelona you are the worst the worst the point is the point is if you are a victim of revenge porn in one of those 27 states your options are limited you can try to pursue stalking or harassment charges but those laws may not always apply or you can file a civil suit against the person who did it but as a noorie tyranny found out you face an uphill battle I did go to lawyers in 2010 to handle this civilly and the first one said well you know you really should get better boyfriends I won't take this case the second one I approached said well it's gonna be a $5,000 upfront retainer and this could run anywhere from ten to fifteen thousand when all said and done I'm a single mom of two I work two jobs I don't have $5,000 nevermind 15 yeah of course you don't because most people don't keep a shoebox full of money marked just in case a total piece of tries to ruin my life now no you could ask the website to take the photos down if you own the copyright but if they refuse then winning your lawsuit might entail doing something absolutely mind-blowing you can sue but to do that you've got to register the copyright which brings us the cold hard truth in the most extreme case you've gotta send pictures of your naked body to the Copyright Office that's in Washington yes to stop strangers from seeing pictures of their naked body some women have had to send more strangers more pictures of their naked body we are one step away from trying to protect our children in the future by having the copyright symbol tattooed onto their genitals at birth look just to be safe let's take her to Vipers ink Shack we don't know what kind of she could end up meeting this situation is insane and as one expert found the official response to victims ranges from offensive to ridiculous I've interviewed 60 victims of online harassment what they're often told is look either if it's revenge when you shared pictures with your ex he owns it now like sorry that you trusted the person but it's kind of your fault right or they're told look if it's just harassment generally like turn off your computer ignore it it'll go away but turn off your computer is simply not practical almost every job requires the internet now somewhere right now in the world there is a yak herder going why is the Wi-Fi so slow I'll herd these yaks after lunch and that whole distinctly victim-blaming sentiment of if you didn't want this to happen you shouldn't have taken photos he's hardwired into mainstream culture just watch how the news talks about this whenever it comes up how best to avoid this problem experts say don't take pictures and then share them I think that the teachable moment and the takeaway is you just can't take these pictures you know what don't take negatives - one of the solutions have promised don't take pictures of yourself naked oK we've said that good point kids don't take pictures of yourself naked and put it on the Internet's it's gonna come up some point and what if it doesn't come up until you're a parent and then you got excuse me are you talking about for stop not taking pictures doesn't always work sometimes these photos come from hacked webcams but regardless of that it doesn't matter how it happens because here's a fun game insert any other crime into those same sentences listen guys if you don't want to get burgled don't live in a house if you're a parents how are you gonna explain that break-in to your kids I'm well aware that asking law enforcement to police speech is a dicey proposition no one wants them trolling through message boards looking for violent language but if a woman turns up to a police station say someone threatened her life on Twitter the answer what Twitter is woefully inadequate and as for a revenge porn we're going to need some new laws unfortunately there are plans to introduce a bill in Congress called the intimate Privacy Protection Act that aims to address non-consensual pornography and we've obtained an exclusive video of one representatives genuinely moving speech about balancing First Amendment rights and protecting victims I got you again you're a bunch of idiots anon the king of pranks yeah if passed this law as drafted would make it a crime to post revenge porn and don't worry it would still leave us with plenty of internet porn to keep us going and also the law would carve out exceptions for the bona fide Public Interest meaning that if say a public figure like Anthony Weiner texts ative penis around we could all still enjoy that story not being able to enjoy it would not be a danger although the truth is the law can only do so much companies need to be much more diligent about clamping down on this and they are slowly coming around in recent months Twitter and reddit banned revenge porn on their sites and just this Friday Google finally announced after much prodding it would remove photos of revenge porn from search results upon request and for Google to do that is not nothing because we all know not even vindictive perverts will use Bing they won't it not even they will go near that thing they're not monsters and for the rest of us it comes down to to us and to fundamentally changing the way that we think about the internet cuz too often you hear people play down the dangers of the internet by saying well relax it's not real life but it is and it always has been the whole point of those AOL ads 20 years ago was that what you did online would affect your life immediately nowadays you can click a button and buy a book meet your spouse or ruin someone's life sometimes those last two are the same click but we we all know the Internet is an incredible tool but like most tools it can be used as a weapon and we've allowed things to get to a place where women can fear for their lives for something they said online and find themselves mailing their genitals to Washington in order to maintain their privacy and perhaps we would have dealt with this earlier if only those AOL ads have looked something like this every day the Internet is making it easier for people to live work and play hey Dan ready for the game I'm just finishing up here with my new kayaking friends wow that's a really specific thing to say listen I'm not gonna be able to make the game tonight oh why well I have to go out into the streets and scream obscenities at women that I don't even know and then after that I got a hand write letters to all the Golden Girls telling them that I'm gonna down their throats and then after that I got to bring these naked photos of my ex-wife to her office and show them to everyone that she works with because she's such a it's gonna take hours hey we can do all of that before we go you know right know with the internet look it's easy see here's a random woman from Minneapolis who just said how she felt about something you want me to make her fear for her life why not but how done incredible what else can this thing do to women with the internet the only limit to how miserable you can make another human being its how angry you are and how fast you can type hey well what about those photos of my ex-wife oh that's my favorite part all you have to do is scan them into this site and then people can see it instantly their boss for friends for parents everyone everyone everyone everyone everyone and this is legal there's no federal law explicitly against it that seems insane doesn't it yeah it really does anyway come on we're gonna be late for the game can't wait afterwards I'm gonna some of my new kayaking buddies a Dark Carnival of humanity's most wretched impulses Oh fourth wasn't a good guess you

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 12,220,684

Rating: 4.0655627 out of 5

Keywords: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (TV Program), HBO (TV Network), John Oliver (TV Writer), online harassment

Id: PuNIwYsz7PI

Length: 16min 49sec (1009 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 21 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/AFellowOfLimitedJest]

Clearly, no one has shown John just how strongly Bing is tied with pornography. Seriously - for those who didn't know, click videos, turn off SafeSearch, and marvel at how easily your searches deliver.

[u/MirrorNinjaBot]

mirror - GB, AU restricted

[u/TruckChuck]

Aaaand so ends Reddit's love affair with John Oliver.

[u/[deleted]]

Was that Colin Hanks at the end???

[u/KingWhoBoreTheSword]

At 12:55 doesn't John contradict himself a bit when he says how we can all still laugh at Anthony Weiner sending pictures of his penis out?

[u/cttouch]

I'm going to go ahead and still recommend not sending naked photos to anyone if you fear them ending up online.

[u/[deleted]]

I could do without featuring Anita or Wu but whatever. In the end a legitimate message about a legitimate problem got out there, and anything that helps to cut down on revenge porn is a good thing.

I will say that I think there's a difference between some jackass sending you threats that are probably illegitimate over a public forum through a burner account, and someone taking a picture in front of your house with a knife. Then again I've never had to deal with either so what do I know :P

I think the segment was a net positive. Not his best work, but fuck it, I'll keep watching. John Oliver is entertaining and most of his stuff is on point.

[u/Moonswish]

When reddit banned revenge porn, was the top comment of the announcements thread "Why isnt SRS banned?"?

[u/BtothejizA]

Including Wu and Anita instantly made this more divisive than it needed to be.

Cut those two out and put in 30 seconds on swatting and everyone would have agreed on everything.